


Don't Leave Me Tongue Tied

by songbirdlaidahand



Category: Glee
Genre: Multi
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2013-01-27
Updated: 2014-01-31
Packaged: 2017-11-27 02:04:03
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 8
Words: 28,931
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/656855
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/songbirdlaidahand/pseuds/songbirdlaidahand
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>An Achele story beginning in 2008 and follows them through the present. Also found under the same pen name on fanfiction.net</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Start Of Something New

**Author's Note:**

> I don't own glee or any of the people, or songs, or a lot of other things found within the story except the story itself.

I was so nervous as I pulled through the Paramount arches and parked my car. I was actually physically shaking as I got out and walked into the first table read of a new show I had barely booked titled Glee. 

It was all such a whirlwind and now here I was stumbling down a hallway wondering how I got here and why in the world I decided to wear heels. I know what you're thinking, that I’m a klutz and I fell, this one occasion you would be wrong! I managed to make it all the way down an exceedingly long hallway to the seat that had a place card with my name on it. Shocking isn't it. 

I sat there fiddling with the hem of my dress taking all of it in. The room was about half filled and several others came over and introduced themselves. They all seemed very nice, there was Amber, Cory, Kevin, Chris, Harry, and Mark. The girl I was sitting next to, who was very pretty might I add, her name is Naya. After chatting with her for a few minutes I could easily see us becoming great friends. 

The girl a couple seats down from me who name is Jenna was very bubbly but in a good way, she told me of when she had been on broadway and the person we were all waiting for who was to sit in the empty chair next to me. 

All of a sudden a burst of energy hit the room. I turned my head and in one second the empty seat next to me was occupied. 

As she sat she announced to the room “Sorry I’m late everyone I got stuck in traffic, if you don't know me I’m Lea”. 

I was a little distracted by her smile which was really really white and rather close to my face for someone I had never met as she turned to me talking in a much softer voice “You’re Dianna right, and you're playing Quinn, this is gonna be so much fun, I’m playing Rachel!” 

We all made it through the table read rather unscathed. As I reached down to put my script in my purse Lea’s hand lightly stopped my wrist. “Hey, Jenna, Naya, and I are going to go grab dinner, wanna come?” 

I smiled at her “That sounds great”. I was surprised I got any words out as I was transfixed by her sparkling brown eyes.

As we sat down Jenna clapped her hands “So we have two New Yorkers and two Californians, this is wonderful!” 

Lea smiled “Lets tell a little bit about ourselves, I’ll go first! Like Jenna said I am from New York and have been on Broadway since I was 8 which is when I met Jenna”. 

Jenna laughed “And that would be my story”. 

“I’ve acted since I was little” Naya added. 

I was getting a little nervous as I was rather new to acting mostly looking at the three other girls histories I decided to just go with my gut. “Well I was born in Savannah, lived in Texas for a while, and then moved to San Francisco.” Everyone smiled and I released the breath I hadn’t realized I was holding.

“Okay siblings, go” Naya commanded. 

Jenna was first “I’m an only child”. 

“Me too” Lea added. 

“I have one brother” I said taking a drink of my tea. 

“Cool, I have a brother and sister” Naya finished off the question. 

Before we knew it it was an hour and a half later and we had all really bonded. Jenna was the first one who had to leave to go home and skype with her parents. We made sure that we all had each others numbers and with that Naya was off as well to catch up on reality tv which sounded like a great evening at least to me. 

Lea and I got up after a few more minutes to walk to our cars. After walking through the door she linked her arm with mine, I looked over at her “Ya know I actually saw you in Spring Awakening awhile back, you were amazing”. 

She instantly smiled widely and pulled me a little closer “You really think so, that means so much!” We both giggled at that, kind of like a mutual unspoken I like you, I like you too. 

I spent the entire weekend memorizing my script and worrying that this pilot could not even get picked up. Suddenly it was monday and I had parked my car at Paramount and was walking up the steps of the trailer I would be sharing with Lea for the filming of the pilot.

I opened up the door to find Lea sitting on the couch “Hey” she said looking up from her computer “Nervous”? 

I let out a sigh “Not gonna lie very much so”. 

I put all of my stuff down on the counter and sat next to her. She closed her laptop and turned towards me “Me too, its my first time being on a television show and I’m not used to the set up, I was going crazy all weekend”. 

I chuckled “You’re making me feel a little better”. 

“Hey!” she said swatting my arm lightly. 

We spent a good hour getting to know each other better and just talking and laughing since we weren't shooting for a little while. It was so easy to be around Lea, not that I wasn't still guarded cause I usually was with friends for a little while. Id say I’m non confrontational. 

We heard a knock at the door “Five minutes till make up ladies”. 

Lea smiled “Well I guess we should be going, after you my lady”. 

I could sense the confused look on my face “Lady?” 

She opened the door “Sorry, thats just what I call my friends, unless we are talking about my guy friends, then not so much”. 

“I like it” I said linking our arms as we walked towards the make up trailer. 

______________________________________________________________________

We finished filming the pilot and Lea and I were in our trailer collecting our things when Lea turned to me “What are you up to tonight?” 

“Ignoring my roommate and her boyfriend through very thin walls.” I cringed a little, it was true they were very noisy and it was making me want to move but I couldn't afford to do that. 

“Wanna go to a movie since its still early and then maybe get take out and you could even sleepover at my place if you want.” 

Lea’s offer sounded pretty darn good “Lea I wanna say again I’m sorry that I have to be so mean to you as Quinn, it really kills me”. 

Lea smiled “But it’s who your character is, I’m perfectly okay, now is that a yes to my question?” 

I laughed “Yes.” 

I drove to Lea’s and we decided to just watch a movie and order take out. I decided on Mean Girls while Lea ordered vegan pizza. She skipped into the living room and jumped onto the couch “The pizza is on its way my lady”. That whole situation made me laugh which she took as a good sign. 

Lea pointed at the start up menu “Ya know, this movie never gets old, it’s so damn quotable, I love it!” 

“It’s Tina Fey.” 

“Can you imagine Jane and Tina in a scene together?” I pondered that for a second after Lea said it, Jane Lynch and Tina Fey “I don’t even think there are words for that” we both laughed. 

“Do you wanna start the movie or wait for the pizza” I asked. 

Lea furrowed her eyebrows “Let’s wait for the pizza, in the mean time would you like some wine?” 

Never turn down the offer of wine, okay maybe sometimes but now is not one of them “Why yes that would be lovely”. 

I took the glass of wine she handed to me “Sometimes you talk so poetically Dianna, its beautiful”. 

I blushed at the complement “Thanks, thats the other side of myself, Charlie”. 

She raised an eyebrow “Charlie?” 

“Yeah, I’ve been to a psychic a couple of times and there is something about a Charlie watching over me and is a big part of my life so the artsy side of me I call Charlie.” 

“That is fascinating” she smiled. 

Two glasses of wine later the pizza finally arrived and Lea sat it on the coffee table. “I love pizza, I love pizza, I LOVE pizza.” 

“I’m guessing you like pizza Lea?” 

She smiled and sat down “Why yes I do.” 

“Who loves orange soda, Kel loves orange soda” we both said at the same time which sent us both into a fit of laughter. Somehow we had gravitated closer together but neither of us moved and it felt completely normal. 

We didn’t start the movie, instead we kept talking. Lea told me about her best friend in New York, Jonathan Groff, and we talked about how we really wanted Glee to be picked up so we could work together. 

Finally we watched the movie and by the time it ended it was 2am. I followed Lea to her room to get ready to sleep. It was kind of like when you have a new friend in high school so its a little weird cause its all new and so you bring your cutest pajamas so that it seems like you always sleep in something adorable. 

______________________________________________________________________

A couple weeks had passed since our sleepover and we had been hanging out with each other a lot waiting for news of a pick up. We happened to be at Starbucks when Leas phone rang “Hello?” she said a couple of yes’s and then hung up. She sat her phone on the table “We got picked up”. 

“WHAT” I excitedly yelled probably sounding like a maniac. 

“I know!!” We hugged each other across the table which gathered some more awkward stares. 

Lea suddenly had a serious look on her face “So since we got picked up there is something that I was wanting to ask you that I’ve been thinking of for like a week”. 

“Yeah?” 

She sighed “I know you have been trying to find another apartment since your roommate is pretty much a total bitch, and I also know you were worried about how much it would cost you, so I was wondering if you wanted to just move into my second bedroom, I thought it might me fun to live together.” 

“Are you sure Lea, I mean I don't want to impose?” 

“Don't be silly Di, I would love for you to move in.” 

I gave her a big hug “Okay”.  
______________________________________________________________________

Lea managed to wrangle most of the cast and their vehicles the next weekend to help move my things. We had everything loaded by the time my roommate and her obnoxious boyfriend woke up. Everyone got the boxes into Leas and we ordered food. 

Jenna and I carried the pizza boxes to the counter while Lea and Harry carried the sodas. “Was all of this pizza really necessary?” Jenna asked. 

“Yes” Lea and I said while looking at the boys who Harry had already gone over to. 

“Maybe us girls should get food before the boys come and pillage it all” Jenna had a point. 

I pretended to raise a sword into the air “Let us plunder!” 

Amber walked in with Naya behind her “Are we vikings now?” 

I handed them both a plate “Yes”. 

Naya played along “My dream has finally come true”. 

We ate and laughed and had everything of mine put away by 4pm. Cory, Mark, Harry, Amber, and Chris said their goodbyes and Lea and I thanked them or their help. Naya proposed that since Kevin, Lea, myself, and she didn't have any plans that night we should go out to dinner to celebrate. 

Us girls were being so indecisive so Kevin chose Olive Garden. “Soup salad and breadstix” Naya skipped through the door Kevin was holding for her. 

“Is that what you're getting Naya?” 

She lightly poked Kevin’s nose “Nope it isn't bee.” They had for some reason started calling each other bee during the pilot, I had to admit it was cute, they were like brother and sister. 

Naya was staring at the menu “Would it be too elaborate to order everything?” 

“Probably” Kevin said grabbing the menu out of Naya’s hands. 

“Hey!” Kevin chuckled and gave it back to her while Naya stuck out her tongue at him.

“Filming on monday, are you guys excited?” Kevin asked with a smile. 

Lea clapped her hands “Hell yes!”. 

“Excitedly nervous” I added.

It was true I was nervous about it all, but in a good way. This was something that I was really dreaming of and now there it was staring me right in the face and I couldn't have been happier.


	2. Light Up The World

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Still don't own anything.

Time had flown by and we had already filmed several episodes of Glee. It was turning into the best thing ever. The whole cast was growing rather close and the second episode they added a third cheerleader to the mix, Heather Morris. 

Heather is basically a ball of sunshine here on earth. In fact her and Naya clicked right when they met, Naya even stated that it was because God and fate laid a hand. That pretty much summed up Lea and I as well. We were practically inseparable. We had our own trailers now though so that was a teeny set back, not like it deterred us from spending time together though. 

It was hard having to be mean to Lea in scenes as Quinn so we would go home and try and make things up to each other. We would bake cakes and cuddle on the couch and watch movies and randomly list things we admired about the other. Quite the opposite of Rachel and Quinn and it couldn’t be more perfect. 

______________________________________________________________________

It was coming up to august and all of us glee cast were headed on a cd signing tour around america. I was sitting on the couch when Lea came running in, prancing onto the couch, and staring at me with her large puppy dog eyes and a trademark Lea pout. 

I looked over at her and chuckled “Whats up Lea?” 

“Okay, you're probably gonna say no but I was thinking we could go for a girls weekend in Boston before the tour, what do you think?”

“That sounds like a great idea” she wrapped her arms around me in one quick motion. 

“Im so excited lady Di.” I put my arms around her as well and pulled her closer. I turned back to what I was watching while stroking Lea’s hair after she laid her head on my shoulder. 

After about fifteen minutes I looked down at Lea and noticed she had fallen asleep. She looked so peaceful it made me smile. I really didn't know what I would have done with out the wonderful person who I was holding, so thankful to have her as my best friend. 

My eyes fluttered open and I looked at the clock, it was 3:30am. Lea was sleeping soundly wrapped in my arms. I leaned down to whisper in her ear “Lea, wake up, Lea.” I nudged her arm. 

“Dianna?” 

“Come on sleepyhead, lets get you to bed” I pulled her up off the couch. 

She linked our arms and rested her head on my shoulder as we walked to her room. “Di will you stay in here, you are really comfy to snuggle into?” 

I smiled “Of course Le.” 

______________________________________________________________________

 

We were an hour into our flight to Boston “Di, they have wifi on the plane, this is so exciting!” 

“Are you tweeting Lea?” 

“Yep, I’m bragging that I get to spend a whole weekend with you!” 

“We live together.” 

“Not the point” Luckily I had my sunglasses on and she couldn’t see me roll my eyes at her. 

“Now that you have finished tweeting what shall we do?” 

An evil grin appeared on her face when I said that. “I believe its time for a movie” 

“Which movie?” 

“No I change my mind.” 

“Okay?” 

“What are your list of things you want to take pictures of in Boston?”

“Way to change the subject Lea, um just some of the old historical sights, why do you have your crazy plotting face on” She was kind of freaking me out a little bit. 

“I don’t know what you’re talking about Dianna.” 

“Sure.” 

“Seriously Di, I am just so excited to spend this weekend with you.” She laid her head on my shoulder and we quietly chatted as the plane continued. 

We grabbed our luggage and took the private car we had reserved to our hotel for the weekend. Since we had booked the hotel on our own it was a little simpler than what the network would have for us on the cd tour.

There was a huge king bed that when you opened the curtains the window overlooked Boston. It was beautiful. I was in the middle of imagining the city lights at night when Lea grabbed my arm and pulled me onto the bed where she was jumping “This is perfect.” 

I grabbed my camera and we headed out first to the Old North Church. “This is absolutely beautiful” I said clicking another picture on my camera as Lea walked beside me humming revolutionary war tunes which made me smile.

We walked around a little more and hit up a few other historical sights by the time the sun was starting to set. We headed back to the hotel to decide on dinner. Lea jumped and crash landed on the bed “What do you say we change into pajamas and order room service for dinner?” 

“Jet lag?” 

“Yeah.”

I agreed as I was just as jet lagged and you could see on our faces we were tired. We called and ordered room service. “Dianna I have the best idea for what to do tomorrow.” 

I plopped down next to her and she scooted in closer to me taking my hand. “Lets sleep in, take a train up to Salem and pretend to be witches.” 

This made me laugh “I love that idea, lets do it.” 

We ate and crawled under the covers to watch tv. I reached for the remote and as soon as I leaned back Lea snuggled into me laying her head on my shoulder and resting her arm over my stomach. I turned the tv on and we were hit with an old episode of Even Stevens. 

Lea chuckled “I really love this show.” I put my arm around her shoulder lightly running my fingers up and down her arm while laying my head on the top of hers. I slowly felt my eyelids start to sink and finally let sleep set in. 

I woke up after what felt like a wonderful nights sleep. Even better was having Lea’s arms wrapped around me. I opened my eyes to find her brown ones staring back at mine and a smile on her lips. 

“Morning Lady.” 

“Hi” I said in a high pitched morning voice making me sound like a little kid. 

“So I was up a little earlier so instead of taking the train up to Salem I got us a private car.” Lea said tucking her head below my chin. 

“You didn’t have to do that Le.” 

“We are going to go to the cemeteries and find the really old headstones and then go a few other places.” 

I placed a kiss on the top of Lea’s head. There were some people who thought Lea could be quite the diva but she really had a heart for others. She would do anything for the ones she loved. I quickly went on twitter to post the picture I took out the window the day before with the caption “I may never want to leave Boston”, locked my phone, and wrapped my arm around Lea. 

______________________________________________________________________

“And that was the last of the cemeteries.” I was so excited that I had gotten to just wander around and take pictures as Lea followed. 

“Now guess where I’m taking you” Lea grinned. 

“Um, someplace really really cool?” 

“Only the best for my Lady.” 

“You’re not gonna tell me are you?” Lea didn’t answer but instead kissed my cheek and turned to look out the window. 

I checked my twitter feed as we went “Lea you posted this morning ‘What happens in Boston stays in Boston’ ” I rolled my eyes “We aren’t even in Boston.” 

“Well we are close enough Di.” 

“Okay LeLe.” 

Lea tapped my arm and pointed out the window. “We are here Di.” 

“The witch house, Lea you did research!” She was pulling me out of the car at this point. 

“And that surprises you for some reason, this place is ridiculously cool.” 

After heading back to Boston we met up with some friends for dinner that were there from London. As we entered our hotel room I flopped down on the bed “Best day ever.” I looked over at Lea who was still smiling, she had been smiling all day, not that I was going to complain I was rather fond of Happy Lea over any other Lea. 

I looked at my twitter to see that Lea had tweeted that it had been an epic day. It had been exactly that. Lea sat on the bed and ran a finger down my spine “Wanna show me the pictures you took today?” 

“Yes!” 

Before we knew it it was dinner the next night with the whole cast. Cory even tweeted a picture of Lea and I looking at our menus. Sure we had enjoyed our bubble but we had missed our friends. 

Lea and I were in the car on the way back to our hotel for the last night. We both had out our phones and I rested my head on her shoulder. I wrote a tweet saying that one day I wanted to live in Boston. I looked over at Lea and she was writing a tweet that she would miss Boston and I just smiled. 

The next day we were all taken to the mall. Who's gonna complain when they are being taken to the mall, certainly not me. We got up on stage and Lea wrapped her arm around me. A sense of calm rushed over me and the nervousness I was feeling melted away.  
As soon as I was perfectly at peace Lea had let go and stepped away. I sighed but didn’t let my smile falter. The crowd was settling and Lea turned around and smiled at me moving back in front of me. She really had no clue how distracting her smile could be, freaking beautiful. She wrapped her arm around me again, every nervous feeling instantly gone once again.

They asked how we were all liking Boston so far and Lea leaned up to whisper in my ear "Its absolutely magical." A few questions later Lea was pulling at the side of my shirt so tight that I could feel exactly how nervous she was even though she would probably never have admitted it.

After Lea described her audition day mayhem she seemed to relax and started playing with the back of my shirt. I'd never been good when it came to little things being able to distract me and that was definitely doing it. There were a few more questions and we sang happy birthday to Mark. A fan then asked Amber to sing happy birthday during which Lea grabbed my hand and leaned into me trying to stifle her laughter to no avail.

Going on, a fan asked who was most like their character to which Mark quickly replied Lea. He then gave her this look, if you had seen it up close you would have wanted to smack him as much as I did in that moment. Instead I took the high road "Because she is so talented." Well she was and there was no way that I was going to stand for anybody to hurt her in any way.   
Lea brought her mic up "Thanks Dianna!" She wrapped her arm back around me and leaned into me squeezing me slightly which of course I didn't mind.

The interviewer was drawing the question and answer to a close and Lea grabbed my hand and I leaned down to hear what she was saying "Im so glad the first one is over, I was so nervous." 

I smiled at her "Me too!" And with that I turned and we left the stage.

Before I knew it it was day two of the tour and we were in New Jersey. New Jersey was turning out to be crazy. They had given us flip cams to use and since Lea and I were sharing a car we were goofing off so much with them the entire ride. First Lea and I posed for pictures together and then it was time for interviews. Luckily those were with Lea as well.

Time flew by and we were in Chicago. I had not been able to see Lea the day before and we were so glad when we were in the car on the way to the mall. "I missed you so much Di!" 

"I missed you too!" 

"We should go get pizza later." 

"Okay severe subject change, you've been doing that a lot lately." 

She raised an eyebrow at me "You don't want pizza." 

"What if I said I didn't." 

She let out a laugh "Well I would drag you with me anyway." 

"Good thing I want pizza then huh."

We were waiting to go up on stage, still very full from the heaps of pizza we consumed, when I noticed how short Lea's dress was "Lea why did you wear such a short dress?" 

"What it’s cute." I rolled my eyes and nodded knowing full well she didn't care the dress was short or the fact that she was going to be up on a stage in it.

Lea was up talking and the guy asked if anyone had seen Spring Awakening. I did. I had seen it a year before I started working with Lea without any clue that here I would be working along side such a talented person. After me they called up Mark. 

Mark was answering a question about 'Jericho' when Lea leaned over and whispered "Would now be a good time to scream like a fan girl." 

"It would certainly freak him out." She beamed at my response and reached behind me to hold my hand.

We had the next day off in Chicago. Lea and I had fallen asleep the night before watching a movie. I gently tapped her shoulder "Lea." No response. "Lea, Lea, Lea." I said the last one fairly loudly. She replied with a grunt. "What do you want to do today?" 

She furrowed her eyebrows but didn't open her eyes. "Wanna wander the city with me lady Di?"

An hour later we were gallivanting around Chicago. I hadn't spent much time here before and was so glad I had decided to take my camera. It was kind of nice having a body guard with us as Lea and I were able to both be in the pictures in front of the various destinations we had decided upon. Since we had slept until one it didn't really surprise us when we received a text from Jenna about dinner plans. Lea decided to answer for us and that we were going to do our own thing. 

"We are?" I asked. 

"There is this little hole in the wall restaurant here that I heard through the grapevine about and I thought maybe you and I could try it, just the two of us." She finished by lightly taking my hand and running her thumb softly over my knuckles. She had me. 

"I would love to."

When Lea said hole in the wall she wasn't kidding. I really wanted to ask how she heard of such a tiny local restaurant. Before I could actually ask Lea grabbed my hand and the waiter showed us to our seats. We sat across from each other in a tiny little booth. The restaurant was barely lit and had such a welcoming atmosphere that I really wanted to bottle it up and take it home.  
This time we didn't have the body guard and it was nice just to sit here normally with Lea. 

She reached across the table and played with the fingers of my hand which was on the table as we looked at our menus. There were so many choices even for such a small restaurant. Most of the food was Italian except for the fries I saw immediately catching my attention. After ordering Lea gave me a serious look. I raised an eyebrow signaling her to continue with her thought out loud.

"Di, I'm really glad you didn't end up kicking Marks ass for the look he gave me at the question and answer the other day." 

"Well I should have, no one messes with my best friend." 

"Thats why you're so amazing." 

"If it had been in private I would have slapped him upside the head, and I'm not a violent person."

"You know he didn't mean anything by it, he was just messing around." 

I sighed, she was right. "Yeah I know, it still irks me though." Lea started to giggle. "Whats so funny Lea?" 

"You rhymed." 

I rolled my eyes and laughed as well "You're a dork and I love you." 

"Im your dork and I love you too." 

"Good."

Lea insisted on paying for dinner without giving me a good reason other than some comment about New York and she was tough or something. It made no sense but instead of arguing about paying my own I decided to enlist the 'whatever Lea wants Lea gets' stance.

Arriving back at the hotel we both plopped down on her bed. She snuggled closer into my side "Im so full but it was all so good." 

"We could have eaten less breadsticks." 

"What! The breadsticks were the best part, you are crazy woman." 

"They really were the best part weren't they. And the tiramisu at the end, oh my gosh." 

"It was a good thing we split it or we would probably be bursting at the seems." 

"I don't think I would mind as long as it was that tiramisu." 

"Me either."

I was so comfy and apparently Lea we too as I noticed that her breathing had evened out as my mind had wandered off and she had a peaceful look on her face as if she couldn't have been happier. I leaned my head on the top of hers and rested my arm over the top of her arm that was draped over my stomach and fell fast asleep.

Minnesota flew by (as did a few roller coater rides at Mall of America which were beyond amazing) and we all found ourselves in Houston. Mark and Kevin tried to kiss the ground as we were getting off the plane only to be stopped my Cory who told them it was utterly stupid. Luckily they listened when he told them cause when they tried to rope me into joining them claiming that since I used to live in Texas I had join they wouldn't listen to me about the craziness of their idea. We weren't even in their hometown yet.

On the way to the mall Mark pulled out his phone "Di, I have got to show you this video I found last night, its called most pathetic panda ever, you have to watch it." After that we all spent the rest of the ride watching cute animal videos.

We didn't even spend more than 6 hours total in Houston and we were in Dallas. Somehow Mark convinced Fox to let us all stay at his grandmothers lake house instead of a hotel. I kind of wanted to ask how he accomplished that but never did.  
The boys were all going to be in the room Mark usually stays in while visiting and us girls were in the other guest bedroom. Amber took over the cot leaving the bed for Lea, Jenna and me. Marks grandmother came by a few minutes after we had settled in and told us that she had made some tea for all of us.

Aside from Amber and also Chris who had both already gone to bed we all met in the living room for tea. We all sat down after pouring our teas and Marks grandmother asked us how our cd tour was going and eventually headed to bed as well. Ever since arriving I had been eyeing through the huge windows the dock at the back of the house that extended out over the lake. When I wasn't able to fall asleep i decided to sneak out there. It was so peaceful and the water was so still. 

We were close enough to Dallas that you could easily see the city lights illuminating the sky but the stars were easily visible. I laid back on the dock to look at them. The air was humid and hot and I could feel my clothes starting to cling to me but this was always my favorite kind of weather. It made me feel like I could breath. Maybe it was because I was born in Savannah. Who knows. 

I had gotten lost in my thoughts when I heard light footsteps coming down the dock. I turned my head to the side to see a black silhouette that could only belong to Lea. She plopped down next to me and turned her head.

I smiled "Hey." 

"I was wondering where you went, I woke back up and you were gone." 

"I couldn't sleep." 

"I figured you would be out here, I saw you eyeing this dock since we arrived." 

She slipped her hand into mine and intertwined our fingers. "Something on your mind Di?" 

"Im just really happy about everything right now, I feel like everything is finally working out." 

"I love that you're happy, Im happy too."

I scooted closer and rested my head on her shoulder. "Where’s your phone?" 

"Why?" 

"I wanna take a picture." I pulled out my phone and handed it to her. She snapped a few pictures and then handed it back. I looked at them and saved the best one as my screen background.

The next morning we were all up earlier than the sun and I was set to be on the Dallas Morning News with Mark and Chris. Next up after that was the question and answer at the Galleria (one of my favorite malls might I add). Let me just start off with Cory walked in backwards. I just have no words for that boy. And then Mark saying the Jonas Brothers for future songs, no earthly idea why he always says them for everything but I just laughed and looked down lightly shaking my head.

Then Amber sang. Killed it, I'm convinced she can sing anything. Such a beautifully talented vocalist. They asked me about my background, about how I have danced since I was three though I can not do a cartwheel to save my life. Some how Cory and I during the interview came up with the cheerios make cheeramids. Like pyramids, yeah okay thats a lame pun but whatever.

As we were doing interviews Lea surprised me and hugged me from behind. If you have seen that picture I think it can only be described as adorkable. We finished doing interviews together and then we all went to eat at La Madeleine. Cory, Chris, and I decided to head to the ice skating rink after.

The boys were sure I was going to fall so it surprised them when I started to skate figure eights around them without a problem. Cory fell once and it took Chris and me both to pull him back up. I may have made a sarcastic comment about hockey and how he is Canadian.

Denver went by in a blur of tutus and Edward Cullen shirts. Los Angeles was the last stop on our 'Gleek Tour'. Definitely the best for last. Even Naya came out to the Q&A. Lea and I posed together for pictures. We all got up on stage for the questions and the crowd sang happy birthday to Lea so of course I had to document this on my flip cam. I kind of have a video and picture taking addiction, its nothing to worry about.

Oh oh Mark and the Jonas Brothers once again. He really should explain that to the rest of us at some point. He claims it's because it appeals to a younger crowd but I have my doubts about that. The interviewer asked if any of us hook up to which Lea replied that we all make out all of the time. I seriously almost died of laughter between her saying that and the look on the interviewers face. It was priceless.

And with that our cd tour was over. Even though I loved every minute of it I was so excited to get back to my own bed. Sleeping in in the morning was going to feel so wonderful.


	3. Sleepyhead

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Still own nothing..

Lea’s birthday was upon us. I had stayed up the night before to make a cake of which we ate for breakfast after sleeping in the next morning.

Lea looked at me after finishing her piece “Im so happy to spend my birthday with you Di, you’re the only one I would want here with me today.”

Im pretty sure I smiled like an idiot but I didn’t care because Lea was so happy. That night Jenna had planned dinner with the entire cast at her favorite sushi place.

Lea enveloped Jenna in a hug “This is the best idea ever, thank you so much.”

“It’s because we all love you Lea.”

“Are you trying to make me cry” Lea asked as she squeezed her eyes shut.

Just then Naya walked by rolling her eyes “I can’t believe you let our evil plan slip, gosh Jenna.”

Lea moved from Jenna’s arms to Naya’s. “You are lucky I know you are kidding Nay-Nay.”

I proceeded to scarf down half of the zucchini rolls by myself by the time we sang Happy Birthday to Lea. After that one by one everyone started to leave. As I drove Lea slowly leaned over and fell asleep on the center console of my car. She looked so peaceful as she slept with a smile on her face. It took me several minutes to decide that it was best to wake Lea up even though she looked so at peace.

I slowly poked her shoulder “Lea, Lele, wakey wakey.”

“Dianna?”

“Yeah, wanna go inside?”

She lifted her head up and looked around “Oh we are back already.”

She blinked a few times and and opened her eyes wider. Lea nearly fell back asleep while walking to our apartment with her arm looped through mine and her head on my shoulder.

“Not such a bad birthday huh.”

I could feel her smile against my shoulder “It was the best lady.” ______________________________________________________________________

We were back at work when Mark walked up to me and handed me an envelope with Lea and my names on it.

“Whats this?”

“Shhhh, open and find out.”

I raised my eyebrow and opened the envelope. Inside was an invitation inviting us to Mark’s place the next evening after work to a pool party with a dress code of 'ninja'.

“Mark, how are we supposed to dress as ninjas and also go swimming?”

“Shhh do you want people to hear you?”

“What?” I was so lost.

“Black swimsuits, black sweats.” And with that he walked away leaving me baffled.

Thoroughly confused at that point I went to Lea’s trailer and tossed the envelope on her lap.

“What’s this?”

“Mark is having a ninja party tomorrow night, apparently the attire is black swimsuits and black sweats.”

Lea actually had a relieved look on her face “So that’s why Naya and Heather were going shopping for all black, for a minute there I was a tad confused.”

“I still am.” I added while laughing. I picked Lea’s legs up off the couch, sat down, and placed them over my lap “Mark was being like secretive about it, I wonder what he has planned for this whole thing.”

Lea chuckled “Knowing Mark, it really could be anything.”

I was rereading the invitation in the car as Lea drove us home “The party doesn’t start until 9, which I guess means he will probably be supplying glow sticks.”

“Well that would explain why he had bags of them in his car.”

Lea nodded. “Thats what I was thinking.”

We walked in, sat our stuff down, and pulled out the stuff we would need for the party the next night. Lea carried her stuff in placing the whole load of clothes she had her arms stuffed with onto my bed. “I was thinking this black bikini with these black sweats, since we have matching.”

“Wow THE Lea Michele Sarfati wants to match me, I feel so honored.” ______________________________________________________________________

The next night we walked up to Mark’s door hand in hand clad in all black with even our hoods up. Mark barely opened the door and peered out.

“Ladies, welcome” he said with a smile pulling us in and closing the door all in one swift motion.

Once inside only candles were lit with no other sources of light. Lea being easily scared by anything clung even more to me, not that I minded. We sat on Mark’s couch next to Naya and Heather who looked up at us.

Naya smirked “So we meet again” she said before they both turned back to their whispered conversation.

As soon as Cory arrived Mark cleared his throat to gather everyones attention. “I bet you’re wondering why I gathered you all here, our mission is simple, we are going to break all of these glow sticks” as he said that he dumped out a huge bag of glow sticks on the floor causing a loud thud “And we are going to put them in the pool.”

He left no room for questions as everyone gathered up glow sticks. Kevin was in charge of the ones that would be cut open so that the glow could be splattered everywhere. Lea and I were in charge of making sure that everything was covered in the stuff. Naya and Heather, having already taken off their sweats, threw their handfuls of glow sticks into the pool and jumped in after them. We made sure that even the plants were dripping with the neon goo. As soon as the last glow stick meant for emptying was dispersed Cory ran over and picked both Lea and I up tossing us into the pool. I grabbed a glow stick and threw it at him with extremely good aim managing to hit him right in the chest.

“Hey!”

“You had it coming frankenteen” Naya said while laughing.

Mark spoke up after taking a pic of the glowing pool and surrounding area “Well my mighty ninjas our mission was successful. You have been of immense help to this great endeavor. Especially with our little lambs great aim.” He said winking.

“What about me” Lea said with a pout however I could tell the teasing in her tone.

“Yeah sure gold star.” Mark answered.

“That didn’t sound very convincing to me” Lea plastered her diva face on.

This went on for another five minutes between the two while I leaned over the noodle Naya was floating on.

Naya scooted down the noodle towards me “How goes the living with our Broadway?”

I laughed at the nickname quite a few of us sometimes would attribute to Lea, our own little piece of Broadway. “It’s good, a lot of fun actually, so much more fun than my other apartment.”

Heather had joined into the whispered conversation “You do seem very happy Dianna, I’m glad, it makes me happy that you are happy.”

I gave Heather a hug, sometimes she could be kinda like Brittany, both geniuses. Everyone had finally made it inside and dried off after cleaning up the glow sticks as not to get in any littering trouble. Heather, Naya and Jenna had raced back inside while Lea and I strolled our way back.

She laced our fingers “Whats got you so smiley Di, not that it’s a bad thing?”

I smiled at her “I’m just happy.”

Lea arched an eyebrow “For no reason?” I smiled even wider at her. “Seriously, all I’m gonna get is a smile” she teased.

I didn’t say anything as I slid Marks screen door closed. Cory and Kevin came over to say goodbye or as Kevin put it they both had to ‘bounce’. Lea sat down on one of Mark’s stools pulling me onto her lap.

“Can I get you fine ladies drinks?” Harry asked from behind Marks breakfast bar.

“Are those margaritas” Lea pointed at the blender “Cause if so we want two of those.”

Harry smiled “Coming up.”

“Thanks” Lea and I smiled.

I looked at my phone for the time “Its 4am, we ran right past the witching hour.”

Mark walked past then “Oh I should have asked you to bring your cauldron Di.”

Naya proceeded to yell from the couch “Then she could have peeled you, mashed you up, and stuck you in a stew.”

Marks face went a little red at having just been slightly insulted by way of a Lord of the Rings reference as the rest of us laughed.

Naya, seeing the look on his face, added “You know I’m kidding Mark, I already informed you all of my other personality Snix.”

An hour later we were all stretched out on the floor, occasionally yawning, debating why my alter ego ‘Charlie’ and Naya’s ‘Snix’ would be the perfect couple. Harry had left by this point as Amber decided that the two alter egos needed to sing a duet together.

Naturally I started singing the first song that came to mind. “ _At first I was afraid, I was petrified._ ” I sang while sitting up.

Naya joined in looking me in the eyes “ _Kept thinking I could never live without you by my side._ ”

With that we were all rolling around in laughter with Amber waving her hands in the air shouting “Perfect, perfect!”

I sighed as the laughter started to die down “Im so hungry, we should go to IHOP.”

We sat down once inside IHOP and looked over the menus. “Do you think I could just get a platter of bacon?” Naya questioned still starring at her menu.

Since we were seated in a booth Lea initiated a footsie war with me which made us both giggle with in the first minute. Mark gave us a look as if to say ‘what are you two doing’. Amber handed the waitress the menus as Lea leaned over to whisper in my ear. Her breath on my ear sent chills down my spine. I thought that was a weird reaction as she had whispered in my ear before.

“Hold my hand Di.”

As fast as she had leaned over and made me involuntarily shiver she had leaned back and was saying something to Jenna. I slipped my hand in hers and intertwined our fingers. Her thumb started to lightly stroke my knuckles. It was so relaxing I didn’t even realize I had been daydreaming until the food arrived. I regretfully pulled my hand away in order to eat and was glad when Lea kept her hand on my knee.

Naya’s voice pulled me out of yet another daydreaming sequence “Hey head cheerleader pass the syrup.”

“Im not captain anymore Santana, ever since Puck.” I shot Mark a dirty yet playful look.

Lea deciding to play along and added “Guys we are supposed to be using this breakfast as an opportunity to choose songs for sectionals.”

“Hell to the no” Amber said with a completely straight face while Jenna nodded and we all burst into laughter.

As if we couldn’t have looked any more crazy Lea started to hum ‘Hey Jude’ one by one we joined in. ‘Take a sad song and make it better, remember to let her into your heart, then you can start to make it better.’ Mark started to do the na na part as people started to stare.

“Wow, tough crowd” Jenna said looking around.

______________________________________________________________________

After IHOP Lea and I had gone home to do absolutely nothing. We changed into sweats and had ended up laying on her bed watching episodes of FRIENDS.

“You are so comfy, how do you smell so good Lea.” as soon as I said that I couldn’t believe I had. Was I so tired that I was just letting random almost borderline inappropriate things to say to a friend slip out, where was my filter?

Lea snuggled in closer to me which I took as a good sign “It’s probably my laundry soap that smells so good.”

Time to save myself “This is one of my favorite episodes.”

We were currently watching the poker episode from season one. We had decided just to work forward starting at the first episode just for fun as we had both already seen every episode.

“Would you be any good in a poker match?” Lea asked while pulling my hand onto her stomach to play with my fingers.

“I have won before but I am only about half sure of the correct way to play.”

Lea chuckled “I think the boys have gotten together a few times to play or so I have heard, but I’d much rather be here doing this with just you, It’s much more enjoyable.”

Did you see that, yeah it was my heart soaring. “Me too.” I said smiling at her and then laid my head back down on her shoulder because I knew I was probably blushing.

The next thing I knew I was waking up in Lea’s bed alone. I looked around and the tv was off so I looked at the clock which showed I had been asleep for four hours. The smell of food drifted under my nose and I realized I was hungry. I walked out into the kitchen to find Lea making pasta.

She smiled at me as I sat down at the table “I found the recipe online for Olive Gardens breadsticks and figured I would make them for us.”

So that was the heavenly smell wafting from the oven. “Has anyone ever told you that you are the best, because you are, but you didn’t have to do all of this.”

“Well before you can tell me that you feel bad for not helping I just wanna say that I like doing things for you Di, cause you are special.”

I rolled my eyes at her “I am not special.”

Lea let out her trademark laugh, a laugh that every time hearing it gives me butterflies in the best way possible. I wanted to dispute what Lea said but I knew that she would win. So instead I got everything out to start making us some iced tea. By the time I had the tea in glasses Lea had divided up the food on our plates and we both sat down to eat.

“Oh my gosh Lea, this is so good” I said after taking several bites of a breadstick.

“It’s because I’m Italian, it’s in my blood.”

I laughed “You answer that for everything.”

“That’s because its true, you have a matryoshka and you are Russian, makes perfect since.”

“Well since I’ve got my Russian nesting doll, how about we go tomorrow and get you a flamenco dress since you are also Spanish, and also a menorah since neither of us seem to have one.”

This was starting to get a little out of hand. “Im only half Jewish Di, so how about a compromise, since the Catholic side of me loves Christmas like nothing else how about we decorate a tree with little tiny menorahs and blue ribbon.”

I couldn’t tell if Lea was joking or not so I looked at her for a second before her straight face erupted into a wide grin.

I took this as a sign she was mostly joking “How about we just have a normal tree and a normal menorah, and nine days of gifts.”

“Deal.” She said, then dramatically taking another bite of a breadstick as I started to giggle thinking about the whole Holiday debate and how we even got there. “I also think since you are a little Scandinavian we should also get a viking long boat.” Lea added taking a drink of her tea.

I knew Lea was still joking “Honey, we don’t have anywhere to put one.”

We were both then laughing again.

______________________________________________________________________

The middle of shooting episode six Lea had found kittens on the Glee set. She somehow had convinced me that we should take them in and who is gonna argue against a pout from Lea. We had given one of the kittens to Heather (who named him Zach) and kept one for ourselves which Lea named Sheila. Everything was fine and dandy until we realized that I was allergic to her. The make up department was a little frustrated that I kept coming in with red puffy bloodshot eyes. But this particular morning I had been woken up by Lea trying to catch Sheila to give her a bath for who knows what reason and then having Sheila land on my face.

“Oh my gosh, Dianna are you okay?” Lea questioned pulling Sheila off of my face “I was trying to give Sheila a bath.”

I rolled over and then swung my legs off of my bed “Im fine, but for a moment there I thought that the tribbles from Star Trek were attacking my face.”

Sheila hissed and jumped out of Lea’s hands. “I guess thats a lost cause for now” she sighed. “We should probably get some allergy medicine in you since we have the Glee premiere tonight.” Lea grabbed my hand and pulled my into the kitchen where I rested my head on the table while Lea grabbed me a claritin and some water. I had found that Lea was very much a morning person, but at least not to the point where it annoyed me.

Lea and I finally were both ready just in time for the car that would take us both to the Glee premiere. It seemed crazy that it was already fairly popular for a brand new show. Lea and I walked the red carpet together and posed for pictures.

“Dianna, Lea!” Naya said excitedly while running over to us then hugging us both “Di whats with the scratch on your arm, its huge!” she asked rather loudly while grabbing my left arm.

I hadn’t actually noticed it was there but I knew how I got it “Sheila, and it’s not that big.”

Naya shrugged “Whatever you say, actually the other day I went over to Heather’s and Zach scratched my stomach.”

“It sounds like these cats are plotting against you two.” Cory said walking over.

I laughed in agreement “It’s probably cause we are more dog people, although as long as Sheila is nice she is adorable.”

Lea grabbed my hand “And she loves to cuddle with you too Lady.”

Naya looked between Lea and I “When the rest of us aren’t there do you guys just cuddle on your couch with your cat and watch movies.”

I pretended to look shocked at the accusation however it was pretty much true.

Just then Jenna came over to us “Is this about the after party thats gonna be at Lea and Di’s?”

Upon hearing after party Kevin suddenly appeared “Oh I’ll pick up chips on my way over guys.” And with that there was suddenly an after party at our apartment.

While everyone was discussing what items they would be stopping to get I leaned down to Lea whispering that it was a good thing we had cleaned the day before. After the premiere we rushed home so that we both could change before people started to arrive. Lea set up the music as I made sure Sheila was securely locked in her cage in Lea’s bathroom.

I turned around to see Lea standing just inside the door frame “Do we always have to host stuff?”

I stood up and put my arms around her waist “You not only love these people and hosting, I know you are secretly happy to have it here, plus all of these guys love us too.”

Lea smiled “I do love them all, ugh you know me so well.”

“See, it’s a win win.”

There was a knock at the door so I grabbed Lea’s hand and pulled her with me to the door. Opening it up reveled Naya and Heather with bags full of pretzels, sodas, and various candy.

“Well come in guys” I said taking a couple of bags from Naya. We had all of the bags spread over the entire breakfast bar. Heather started to arrange food while I put the sodas in the refrigerator.

“I can’t believe we are the first ones” Naya sighed sitting on a stool “We always like to be fashionably late.”

Heather walked over to wrap her arms around Naya “It’s okay Nay, it just means more time with our favorite ladies.”

Lea smiled her Rachel Berry smile at that and started to pull the various alcohols we had out of the cabinet to place on the counter. It wasn’t long until everyone else started to arrive. Everyone poured themselves a drink and took a place in the living room.

Lea gathered everyones attention to where she sat on the arm of the chair I was seated in “Guys, first thank you all for coming, Dianna and I love you guys so much and are so excited to be able to share the amazing experience this show is going to be with all of you.” She raised her glass and we all followed “To Glee” she said and we all repeated and took a drink.

After that came an intense rockband battle. Lea of course was on the microphone along with Naya, I was on guitar, and Cory was on drums. The first song we played was ‘Should I stay or should I go’ which we all rocked with cheers from the ‘audience’ comprised of the rest of the cast. The next song we played Jenna actually joined in with another guitar as we played ‘Wanted dead or alive’. After that we all decided that Amber should do a solo of ‘Won’t get fooled again’ which she totally rocked.

The song finished and Amber set down her mic “Okay now Im challenging Le and Di to a duet of ‘Don’t fear the reaper’.”

Lea and I exchanged glances because we had actually sang that very song on rockband together many times.

As we grabbed the microphones Heather whistled “Come on guys, you got this” while fist pumping.

I gave Heather a ‘you’re weird but I still love you’ look and she rolled her eyes and smiled.

Lea started off the first stanza.

**_All our times have come_ **

**_Here, but now there, gone_ **

She closed her eyes as she smoothly sang the lyrics.

**_Seasons don't fear the reaper_ **

**_Nor do the wind, the sun or the rain_ **

I joined in to sing the next line so that we would trade off.

**_(We can be like they are)_ **

Lea kneeled on the floor in a pleading fashion.

**_Come on baby_ **

**_(Don't fear the reaper)_ **

I looked down into her eyes and shook my head back and forth.

**_Baby take my hand_ **

I reached out my hand after she sang the line and she took it.

**_(Don't fear the reaper)_ **

**_We'll be able to fly_ **

She looked out and up towards the ceiling as if we were taking off in flight.

**_(Don't fear the reaper)_ **

I continued to look at her.

**_Baby I'm your man_ **

She looked back at me, smiled, and winked. I joined in with her voice while she stood and lifted our hands up to spin me.

**_La, la la, la la_ **

**_La, la la, la la_ **

I kept the hold on her hand as we both closed our eyes and slowly swayed our heads side to side through the guitar rifts as we faced each other. Lea let go of my hand and rested her hand on my chest above my heart for the next line.

**_Valentine is done_ **

I sang the next like countering.

**_Here but now they're gone_ **

Lea smiled.

**_Romeo and Juliet_ **

I smiled back and nodded my head while singing the next line.

**_Are together in eternity_ **

**_(Romeo and Juliet)_ **

Lea took my hand again and pulled me closer.

**_40,000 men and women every day_ **

**_(Like Romeo and Juliet)_ **

**_40,000 men and women every day_ **

**_(Redefine happiness)_ **

**_Another 40,000 coming every day_ **

**_(We can be like they are)_ **

Lea added a pleading tone to that line and kept it when moving on to the next one.

**_Come on baby_ **

**_(Don't fear the reaper)_ **

**_Baby take my hand_ **

I lifted our hands to the space in between and laced our fingers.

**_(Don't fear the reaper)_ **

Lea dramatically turned around and tilted her head up as if looking at something in flight while keeping our hands linked.

**_We'll be able to fly_ **

**_(Don't fear the reaper)_ **

Lea turned back around and sang the next line to me.

**_Baby I'm your man_ **

Our voices joined together once again for the next part of the song.

**_La, la la, la la_ **

**_La, la la, la la_ **

We spun each other a few times through the guitar rifts. As the next line approached Lea let go of my hand and reached up to cup my face with her hand.

**_Love of two is one_ **

She sang while running her thumb over my cheek.

**_Here but now they're gone_ **

I sang back then moved into the next stanza.

**_Came the last night of sadness_ **

**_And it was clear she couldn't go on_ **

**_Then the door was open and the wind appeared_ **

**_The candles blew and then disappeared_ **

**_The curtains flew and then he appeared_ **

Lea ran her hand down my arm and connected our hands then sang the next line.

**_(Saying, "Don't be afraid")_ **

I pulled her closer to me.

**_Come on baby_ **

Lea let go and ran across the ‘stage’ to the other side of our living room.

**_(And she had no fear)_ **

She sang and looked back at me with a smirk.

**_And she ran to him_ **

I sang while I ran over and put my arm around her waist

**_(Then they started to fly)_ **

She turned and started to back away slowly, waving and singing.

**_They looked backward and said goodbye_ **

I put a look of desperation on my face and walked after her.

**_(She had become like they are)_ **

She sang the line and reached her hand out and I took it.

**_She had taken his hand_ **

**_(She had become like they are)_ **

Lea laced our fingers and looked into my eyes.

**_Come on baby_ **

We both leaned and rested our foreheads against each others with our eyes closed.

**_(Don't fear the reaper)_ **

I sang the last line and brought my mic down to my side but kept my forehead against Lea’s as the song ended.

I heard Jenna add in a rather quiet ‘whoa’. Slowly all of our cast mates started to clap for us. We both turned to face them and did an exaggerated bow. Lea pulled us over to where we were sitting before and I sat down making room for her to sit down on my lap.

Heather patted my arm “That was amazing guys, literally your talent is off the chart.”

Harry waved his hands around “None of us can compete with that!”

“I know what you mean, no one can match our chemistry not to mention my voice.” Lea teased everyone receiving a pillow to the back from a smiling Naya.

Kevin stood up “Well as awesome as this night has been I should really head out.” Followed by everyone except Naya and Heather who offered to stay and help clean up.

Naya walked over to me “Trash bags in the same place Di?” I nodded as an answer.

Clean up went fast between the four of us and soon Naya and Heather were both on their way to Naya’s for a sleepover. I wrapped my arms around Lea and she snuggled into me. I kissed her forehead.

“What was that for?” she asked with a sleepish smile then hugged me tighter.

“Mmm just because” I teased “Do you wanna watch something, I’m tired but I still kind of want to do something.”

“I like that idea, I’ll go get changed and we will watch in your room” Lea said walking towards her room.

I went and changed into a tank top and shorts then sat on my bed leaning against the headboard. A few minutes later Lea came in wearing the shortest shorts I had ever seen and a tank top. For a few seconds I took in how gorgeous she looked before pushing the thought to the back of my mind.

“Lea how do you sleep in shorts that small?” I asked moving past the rather random thought that I had just had.

She sat down next to me running her foot along the bottom of mine “Well it’s a little too cool in here to just sleep in my underwear so I put shorts on.”

I gave her a look of almost confusion before pressing play on the FRIENDS DVD that I had decided upon. She draped her arm over my waist as we continued to play footsie, which was more Lea caressing my foot, while we watched as Phoebe found out her pregnancy craving was meat.

______________________________________________________________________

The next morning I woke up to the sunlight streaming in through the sheer curtains. Lea had her legs tangled with mine still fast asleep. Somehow in the night I had shifted so that my forehead rested against hers. I looked at her closed eyes and how peacefully she was asleep. I stayed that way for several minutes just watching her sleep. I kept looking down at her lips and for some reason I was so drawn to just lean in and kiss her but I didn’t. I blinked a few times trying to get the thought of kissing Lea out of my head and sat up.

“Dianna, lets make waffles.” Lea said in a quiet husky morning voice.

I smiled down at her “Sounds great sweetie.”

She sat up and leaned against me from behind “I know we have to pack for San Francisco but we should eat in bed, what do you say.”

I knew we needed to pack since we were flying to San Fran the next day for my brother Jason’s birthday party but what would it hurt to have breakfast in bed so I nodded yes. Lea stood up and laced our fingers then pulling me softly to the kitchen. I set out the ingredients and Lea started mixing them in the bowl. She jumped up to sit on the counter as I poured the first one into the waffle maker. I walked over and leaned against her legs and put my hands on the edge of the counter.

Lea wrapped her arms around my neck “I love the smell of breakfast.”

I chuckled “Its a good thing we bought fruit recently.”

She then had a giddy look on her face “And cool whip!”

“This time you are not allowed to eat the whole thing by spraying it right into your mouth, even if Jonathan did dare you to.” I laughed.

This caused Lea to laugh too “And he didn’t think I could eat it all cause I’m so small, I really think I showed him.”

I nodded “Definitely, never will anyone question if you could consume a whole can of cool whip, though I don’t know why they would.”

“We can just have Amber show them the video if someone does bring my superpower into question.” I rolled my eyes and poured the next waffle. Several more later and we were once again sitting on my bed watching more FRIENDS this time eating our waffles.


	4. What Makes You Beautiful

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I Own Nothing.

“Lea come here!” I shouted from my room. 

Lea leaned around the corner to look into my room “Lady?” She raised her eyebrows.

I motioned for her to come sit on my bed where I currently was, we had both finished packing and had spent all night listening to music. We had to be at the airport in three hours so there was no sense in going to sleep. 

I grinned “I found an acoustic version of Sleepyhead, here listen.”

We listened through the song, we both liked Passion Pit, and both Lea and I had a soft spot for acoustic versions of songs we liked. 

She looked at me as the song ended “How did we not know about this before!”

I shrugged “It kind of makes me want to sleep, in a good way.”

Lea chuckled “Did you say something cause I was out like a light.”

I laughed too and nudged her softly with my elbow. We both leaned back on my bed “It would go well with scenes from Harry Potter.”

“We should tell Chris that.”

“He would have a video for us all to watch the next day with exactly that, the way that boy is passionate about things, he is really gonna go far.”

Lea nodded then scooted so that her head was on my shoulder “And he is only at the beginning.” 

We fell into a comfortable silence for quite a while before I suggested breakfast. We sat down at our table to eat when I realized that this would be the first time Lea was meeting my mom even though she had met my brother once before. She must have been thinking the same thing because she then spoke up. 

“Di, what should I call your mom?”

“She will probably just have you call her momma Mary, even though she hasn’t met you yet she already seems to love you” I smiled. 

Lea let out a breath that I didn’t know she was holding “Okay, thats good, I mean I wouldn’t want her to not like me, that would be really bad.”

“I don’t think theres anyway someone could not like you Lea.” 

She nodded “And I’m very nice.”

“And oh so humble” I added with a sarcastic tone to which she rolled her eyes but smiled. 

A couple hours later we were on the plane as it pulled away from its gate at LAX and we were air born to San Francisco. 

“Di, do you think your mom would let us borrow her car and we could go drive up to Napa for a few hours?” 

Lea was leaning against me but I could still see her huge brown eyes pleading me into this, though Napa is never something I say no to. “Yeah, we can take a nap and then drive up there.”

Contently sighing Lea lifted up the arm rest and laid her head in my lap. Absent mind-idly I started to softly run my fingers through her hair and gazed out of the window at the coastal mountains below us that gently met the sea. 

I was so excited to be going home for the weekend not only to see my family but to get to show Lea what my life was like before becoming an actress. As the mountains passed below us I slipped into a wonderful day dream of us sampling wine and goofing around at my brothers party. 

Shaking me from the beautiful picture in my head was Lea’s voice softly asking if I was excited to be going home for a while. I looked down and nodded as we let another very peaceful silence come over us. 

The plane landed and taxied up to the gate. Once the seatbelt sign flickered off we were up and grabbed our carry ons out of the overhead bin to exit into the airport. I reached over and took Lea’s hand in mine as we made our way to baggage claim. 

We reached baggage claim where my mom was waiting and she enveloped me into a hug that was long overdue. 

“Im so happy to see you mom” I squeezed then pulled away “Mom this is Lea.” I motioned next to me. 

As my mom pulled Lea into a fierce hug I pulled our bag off of the conveyor. We had decided that instead of taking two little suitcases we could just take one large one. Soon we were at the hotel that my dad still managed and I had grown so accustomed to. 

I had told my mom on the short drive that Lea and I wished to go to Napa after taking a short nap. We entered the suite and I showed Lea to my old room. 

I sat the bag against the wall and turned to Lea “Welp, this is it.”

Lea had a smile on her face as she glanced around “It’s so you Di.” 

I stretched out on my old red satin bed and sighed, it really was good to be home. Lea continued to survey things around my old room as I watched her in reverie. Since I had met Lea I had wanted to show her this room and I wondered what she would think of it and it was obvious from her smile that she indeed liked it. 

I was brought back to the real world by Lea curling up next to me, she leaned over and her breath tickled my ear “Your room is just as magical as you my lady, lets get some sleep so we can go retrieve some wine.”

Lea kissed my cheek and rested her head where my shoulder met my chest. I curled my arm around her as she tangled our legs and rested her arm over my abdomen and we fell asleep.   
______________________________________________________________________

I woke up and looked at the clock to see that it was noon. Slowly I got out of bed and walked into the living room and sat down across from my mom. 

“My little lamb, do you feel rested?” 

I nodded my head with a smile “Yeah, Lea is still asleep, are you making something for lunch, because I’m kind of hungry.”

“I just went and picked up Panera for us all.” My mom answered with a smile.

“That sounds great mom!” I said as Lea came into the room and plopped down almost on my lap and rubbing her eyes. 

My mom smiled at us “I’ll go get it and we can eat it in here.”

My mom brought out the food and arranged it on the coffee table “So Lea, obviously you are from New York, how are you liking the west coast?” 

Lea swallowed a bite she had taken “I’m falling in love with Los Angeles more and more every day, so I’d say I’m rather fond of it now.”

They continued to speak on the way Lea was liking the west coast and I was more than happy to just sit and listen. Soon Lea and I were in the car on our way to Napa. 

Lea pulled her ipod out “I made a playlist in case we decided to drive somewhere, so glad I think ahead.” 

“You’re crazy” I said with a teasing tone. 

“Um, I’m your crazy my lady, you love me and I love you.”

I was laughing and rolling my eyes as we crossed over onto the Golden Gate bridge “I do love you.”

Lea was then taking pictures of the bridge as we continued along it. “Im so glad to have come with you this weekend, Dianna, I was so thrilled you invited me, I mean even though we live together it’s nice to get away.” 

I smiled a thousand watt smile and then noticed that Lea had captured a picture of it “You are beautiful” I beamed at her. 

Lea blushed slightly and glanced back out over the water letting the smirk she had develop into a full smile. “You are beautiful too lamb.” 

“My brothers party isn’t until 6 tomorrow so I was thinking maybe we could go to Anthropologie and do some shopping.”

“Because you need more dresses Di?” Lea answered sarcastically then added “Im so in.” 

“Good cause I might would have gone without you.” I teased.

“No you wouldn’t, you like to have me there to zip up your dresses if you cant reach.”

“I bring you along as my personal servant” I deadpanned which caught Lea off guard. 

Lea leaned over to my ear “You’re a tease” she leaned back in her seat with a victorious smirk on her face. 

I looked over and smirked back, two could play at this game “Only for you.”

I Got A Feeling started to pump through the speakers and I turned it up as we were headed into the country side. Lea and I sang along to the whole song with all of the emotion we could find. 

“That is such a fun song.” Lea heavily breathed out after having made the last half into an all out dance party in her seat. 

After she caught her breath she spoke again “How far are we out?” 

“About 45 minutes.”

Lea turned to me with a slightly more serious look on her face “I really like your mom Di, I know I was all nervous before but she is so nice and welcoming.”

I chuckled “Well I do tend to talk my parents ear off about you, you’re pretty much in every story I tell.” 

“I feel like that is how I am with my parents about you.”

“That’s why we make such great best friends.” I turned to actually look at Lea and smiled. 

“So, lady, I haven’t been to Napa, what do you have in store for me?” 

“I figured we would go downtown and walk the little shops and buy cheesy touristy shirts and definitely some wine. We should have someone take our picture under a sign that says Napa too, that would be nice.” 

“It sounds magical, like you, I can totally picture the high school you driving around the country side playing music.”

“Thats pretty much how it was.” Lea really did get me very well. 

We fell into a comfortable silence until we got to the sign that said Napa. Lea started to squeal and kept saying how excited she was to be there. We got to downtown and found a parking spot and got out. Lea intertwined our fingers and we headed towards the shops. 

We entered into one that had souvenir tshirts and picked a couple out. We exited the store and went across the way to one of the fanciest liquor stores I have ever been in. We picked out two bottles of red, a very promising pink noir, and a white because we had previously discussed how nice the vineyard it came from was. 

After putting our wine in the car we found us a Napa sign for a picture. Lea stood in front of me as I had lightly wrapped my arms around her neck with her hands holding mine. I thanked the woman who took our picture then we headed to our car. I drove us to a winery not that far out of town that I knew ran tours. 

“Try not to eat all of the cookies Le” I said looping my arm through hers “Or at least leave some for me.”

“Then leave some wine for me will you lady.” 

I smiled “Touché, although I won’t have hardly any as I am driving.”

Our tour went very well. At the end the winery manager told us his wife was a big fan of Glee and offered us dinner on the private balcony at their restaurant. That is on the list of things you don’t say no to. 

We were seated across from each other overlooking the vineyards that followed the role of the hills. The sun was still fairly up though it did indicate that it was late afternoon. The light danced around through the vineyards and also illuminated Lea. 

After we ordered I was once again struck with how the now evening sun brightened all of Lea’s features so beautifully, as if this is the exact place where she belonged. 

“What are you thinking about dear one?” Lea asked.

I sighed contently “You are... breathtaking, even more so with how the light is playing off of you.” 

I was glad I brought my camera as Lea did different poses and then let me capture some candids of her across the table. She also did the same of me and we took some of us both. 

“We need to hang some of these in our apartment Di.” Lea said while scanning through the pictures I had taken on my digital camera.

I nodded in agreement as our food was placed before us. The food and wine were both exceptional. As we waited for dessert Lea reached her hand across the table. I grinned placing mine on hers and lightly stroked her upturned palm. 

“What do you want to do tonight?” I inquired. 

“I would really just like a cuddle session with you in bed watching a movie.” 

I smirked “Well that sounds very possible.” I had turned her hand so that I could lace our fingers “What do you wanna watch?”

Lea’s devilish grin gave her away before she spoke “Mean Girls.”

“Again Le, really?” I softly chuckled. 

“Okay fine, you pick one.”

“The Princess Diaries” I answered.

“Oh, that is better, okay lamb you win.” I knew that suggesting a movie based wherever Lea was would be a shoe in to get her to watch it and I was right.

“Maybe we should have convinced Heather to name Zach, Fat Louie.” Lea sat up a little straighter with excitement. 

“Maybe!” I replied knowing that would have been a hysterical conversation. 

Dessert was delivered, I had ordered the the tiramisu and Lea had ordered the chocolate swirl cheesecake. Every bite was delicious and I was so full, by the looks of it Lea was as well. The sun was nearing the horizon as we got into the car. 

Pulling onto the main road Lea grabbed my hand and leaned her head against the back of the seat “This was an amazing day.” 

“I just want to live this day over and over again.”

Lea, with her eyes closed and her head still leaned back, nodded “We still have Princess Diaries and some world class cuddling.”

I chuckled “World class?” 

“Yeah, because I’m the best cuddler ever.” 

“Humble still I see” I added sarcastically just as I had done that morning. 

Lea smiled “Damn Straight.”

Some people didn’t understand our sarcasm with each other but it’s really a one of a kind thing. The rest of the ride was spent in silence except for an occasional pointing out of something. Also here and there Lea would softly join in on a chorus of a song only to softly fade out again. 

Night had come upon us as I drove the car through downtown San Francisco. These would always be my favorite city lights, even if I answered another place for that question, it would always truly be these. 

“Im glad we went to Napa, Le.”

We got out of the car after I parked and headed towards the lobby “The whole place just like took my breath away.” Lea linked our arms and rested her head against my shoulder. 

We were all set up to watch our movie, we had opened one of the bottles of wine and made popcorn to go with our red vines, gummy worms, m&ms, and the bag of assorted candy my mom had in the kitchen. 

We got settled close together on my bed and I pressed play on the dvd. Princess Diaries is a movie that never gets old. I always appreciated the irony of them going by on the scooters past the limo. We watched as they travelled down streets we had just gone across hours before. 

Half way in and two glasses of wine later I was starting to tell how tired I really was. I had my head on Lea’s shoulder as I drifted in and out of sleep, each time I opened my eyes we were further into the movie than before. 

I kept trying to figure out how in the world Lea was so attentive during the movie. It must have been her exuberant ball of energy she always possessed. I decided that must be it and snuggled more into her. 

At some point Lea must have tucked us into bed as I woke up and the lights were off, we were under the sheets, and I was slightly spooning Lea from behind her. I ran my foot up her calf and lightly tightened my hold around her abdomen. She sighed and leaned back into me. I placed a barely there kiss on her shoulder and fell back asleep. 

______________________________________________________________________

 

“Come on Lea!” I tapped my foot up and down on the floor impatiently. 

We were heading to Anthropologie as soon as Lea was ready to leave. She insisted that she needed one more lipstick swipe and then she would be ready and apparently that was taking ten minutes. 

Finally she exited the bathroom “See doesn’t this extra touch up look that much better.” 

“Sure Le, lets go, there are dresses to buy!” I said pulling Lea out the door and down the hall. 

“Whoa my lady the store isn’t going anywhere.”

“Yeah I know Lea but the party is at six and I want to try on as many dresses as I can and also grab lunch.”

Lea linked our arms as the elevator went down “Can we grab lunch first?”

“Yes definitely.” 

We went and ate and then made our way to my absolute favorite store. “Lea can you finish the zipper on this dress?” 

Lea finished zipping up the sixth dress I had tried on, lace with blue fabric underneath it. Lea ran her hands along the seams, back, and stomach checking the fit. 

“Di, you should totally get this one.” 

“I think so too, you should get the one you have on right now also, and also the red one, I think I’m going to get the one with the birds as well.” 

“That one did look good too, here.” Lea said pulling the zipper of my dress back down. 

We gathered the dresses in our hands after changing into our previous clothes and made our way to the registers. Lea went to pull one of my dresses out of my hold.

“What are you doing?” I raised my eyebrow. 

Lea laid her dresses and the dress she had pulled from my grasp on the counter and smiled at me “Buying my lady something pretty, so that whenever you wear it you will think of me.”

“Sweetie you don’t have to do that.”

“Are you denying me the satisfaction of this Dianna?” 

Lea left no room for argument so I shook my head and surrendered. We put the bags in the trunk and headed back to my parents. The party wasn’t for another two hours but since my family was hosting it we figured it best to be early. 

I sat the bags down at the foot of my bed, we changed, and we made our way down to the pool where the party was being thrown. As we got on to the elevator there was a guy who looked to be 16 whos eyes widened when we stepped on. Lea tried making small talk with him but all she got was that he was a huge fan of the show. 

Pulling me by the hand towards the pool, Lea only stopped when we reached the other side which was the bar. “Di you did not tell me there was gonna be a bar.”

I laughed “I honestly didn’t think about it Le.” 

Lea turned to the bartender “Yeah we would like two margaritas please.”

She turned back to me and linked both our hands to pull me closer to her. We stayed like that for a minute as the bartender poured our drinks. With umbrella clad margaritas in hand I followed Lea through the snack line and we got plates of food. We picked out a nice chaise as Jason made his way over. 

I squealed while standing up and throwing myself into a hug. “Happy birthday baby brother boo bear!” 

Jason picked me up and spun me “Thanks sister lamb!” Setting me back down Lea got up to hug him and he did the same thing which made me grin exceedingly wide. 

We sat back down on the chaise and Jason sat opposite of Lea and me. “I’m so glad you guys were able to come up here.”

I grinned “I wouldn’t have missed it for the world.”

Lea nodded “Me either.” 

Jason went away to go greet some other guests leaving Lea and I to each other. Since we were eating there wasn’t really much to say so I looked around at the other guests. I saw a few people that I used to know but wasn’t quite interested in getting up to go talk to. 

I was more than good to just stay there with Lea. I was becoming more distracted from the crowd by the fact that Lea placed her knee bent leg over mine and tucked her foot under my calf. I tried to focus on what I was eating but for some reason Lea’s foot was dragging my focus. 

“Look at that guy over there” Of course Lea was looking at a boy, though I wasn’t sure why this was bothering me. 

I turned my head to see where she was looking “Oh yeah he is cute.” 

The guy was tall and blond and looked like a surfer, he was very cute, he must have been one of Jason’s friends I had not met. 

Lea patted my leg “I’m gonna go for a swim.”

I nodded my head to show I had heard her and pulled my sunglasses down over my eyes and leaned my head back. I watched as Lea went over to the pools edge and got in. Then she swam back and forth a couple times and got out. She walked up the steps and stood poolside to wring out her hair. 

I unconsciously ran my eyes over her. Lea is like a Roman goddess in human form. I stopped my eyes on her legs for several seconds, the definition of perfection. I shook my head and took a large gulp of my margarita, it was definitely okay to think of your friends as perfect right? Because Lea, was like another level. My eyes traveled back up to hers and that was another swig of my drink. 

Lea walked over and picked up her towel. I continued to lay there like I hadn’t been watching her but behind my sunglasses I was looking up at her. I watched as her eyes ran over me and I unintentionally shivered. I took another drink of my margarita which was now almost gone. No, none of this could possibly be happening, I decided to just shove it all to the back of my brain. 

Thankfully it was time for Jason to blow out the birthday candles. Lea held out her hand “My lady, a hand to escort you forthwith.” 

I laughed and took her hand and we walked over to join everyone. Jason blew them all out in one try and we all clapped and whistled. We each got a piece of cake and made our way back to our chaise. 

“Di, this cake is amazing!”

“Isn’t it! It’s from a bakery up in San Francisco.” I took another bite. 

“I want to marry this cake” Lea widened her eyes while saying this. 

I burst out into laughter “Good luck with that Le, though the relationship has sweet prospect.”

Lea chuckled “Nice pun, lady.” 

I grinned “It’s my specialty.” 

“Cake fixes everything.” 

I laughed again “I’m going to remember that.” 

Lea swiped her finger through the icing and dabbed it quickly on my nose. I gasped and did the same to her while also managing to swipe it across her cheek. We burst into giggles as Jason brought over champagne and I caught him rolling his eyes. Still laughing I picked up a napkin and wiped off Lea’s cheek and nose. She licked her index finger and swiped it down my nose and brought it to her mouth. She sucked the icing off of her finger while staring into my eyes. 

My eyes stayed transfixed on hers as she pulled her finger out of her mouth and whispered “Sweet.” 

All I was able to do was nod my head. The sun was shining down on her the same way it did in Napa. Her brown eyes showed hints of gold strands running through them like treasure through a stream and I could swear I had never seen anything as beautiful. 

Lea broke away from our moment to hand me one of the champagne glasses. I tipped the glass up to my lips and took a bigger than necessary drink of it. 

“Di, do you wanna go for a swim with me?” Lea quietly asked as I sat my glass down onto the table. 

I returned my gaze up to meet her eyes, I answered in the same tone “Yeah.” 

I got up and followed behind Lea to the pools edge. We jumped in and swam around before I felt Lea grab my wrist and and then she turned me around. I almost collided with her and she put her other hand on my arm to steady me. She looked up and down me and bit her bottom lip. The alcohol from the day was starting to effect us both. 

My eyes drifted down to her lips and she reached her hand up to move wet hair out of my face. I raised my eyebrow questioning what she was about to do. Lea giggled definitely sounding a little intoxicated and reached up and kissed my cheek pulling me into a hug. I held her tighter still confused but not wishing to let go until she started to pull away. 

I still had my arms around her waist so I leaned in to kiss her cheek “We smell like chlorine.”

She brought her lips up to my ear “The party is almost over, no one would probably notice if we left, lets stop by the bar first.” 

Lea intertwined our fingers, we grabbed two glasses of champagne at the bar, dried off, and headed inside to the elevator. We entered the elevator which was luckily empty because as soon as the door closed our eyes were locked and Lea ran her finger up and down my arm. 

“Lea” I breathed out.

She leaned up to my ear, I wonder if she realized she was the reason I had goosebumps “Shhhh.” 

By the time the elevator opened we had finished our champagne and were making our way into my old room. Lea stopped and turned to me “It would save time and water if we showered together, of course we will leave our swimsuits on” she gave a playful smirk at the slightly shocked look on my face and walked into the bathroom. 

We stepped into the shower and pulled the curtain closed. I was remotely sober enough to know that this was all highly suggestive and I knew that absolutely nothing should escalate from this. Lea wet her hair first after turning the handle to hot. She lightly wrapped her hands around my wrists as we traded places so I could wet my hair. 

I grabbed my shampoo and poured some into her hand and then into my own. After we both rinsed the shampoo out we went through the conditioner. Lea took the body wash off of the shelf and ran a finger down my arm “Can you reach your back well Di?” 

I gulped and managed a “No.” It was obvious the margaritas and champagne were clouding our minds. 

Lea grinned “Neither can I” she lowered her voice into a whisper and pulled me closer “If I scrub your back, will... will you scrub mine?”

I didn’t even answer her before I had turned around and pulled my hair over my shoulder and off of my back. I could smell the aroma of Leas body wash filling the steam soaked air as her fingers gently massaged into my shoulders. Lea lightly tugged the strap of my swimsuit that ran across my back. I held the front as Lea untied it and resumed massaging. 

She finished scrubbing my back and retied my swimsuit and I let out the moan I had been trying to stifle hoping that the sound mixed with the pouring water. She turned me around and ran body wash down my arms and over my stomach “All clean Di.” 

I washed off the body wash and poured some into my hand. I started running it down Leas arms and across her perfectly toned stomach lightly ghosting my fingers across it. She gave me a wink and turned around already holding her swimsuit top. I untied it and started to massage her back with the body wash. 

I kneaded her tense muscles as she relaxed. A content sigh passed from her lips as I continued down her back. I let my hands come to rest on her hips and leaned in to gently kiss her music note tattoo on her shoulder. I took a longer than necessary glance at Leas bare back before retying her swimsuit. 

She rinsed off and I grabbed us two towels and handed Lea one. We dried off and made our way into my room. We stood facing away from each other to put on dry underwear. The alcohol from earlier was telling me to chance turning around but the sober part of me was yelling how so very wrong that would be so I didn’t. 

After changing into sweats my mom texted me that my brother would be going out with friends and her and my dad were headed to see a movie. Lea and I decided to order room service. While waiting for it to arrive we curled up on the couch. 

“You are so beautiful Lea.” I was letting things slip through my filter and that last glass of champagne was making me not care one bit. 

Lea connected both of our hands “You are beautiful too Dianna.” 

She ran her foot along the bottom of mine and I smiled at her. “Did you have a good day?” 

“Absolutely, Im so glad you invited me, I wouldn’t have wanted to miss all of this.” 

“Well I wanted you to be here with me.” I said a little quieter than the last sentence. 

“There’s no place I would rather be.” 

“That was kind of a cheesy line Lea, but I did like it.” 

Lea chuckled and leaned into give me a hug. I squeezed her tighter and she did the same to me. Then there was a knock at the door which was our food. I poured more champagne into our glasses as Lea sat the food on the coffee table. We sat on the floor tucked underneath the table to eat. 

“You know what this all needs?” Lea asked. 

I shook my head having taken a bite of my food. 

Lea broke out into a grin “It needs soft background music.” She got out her phone and began playing soft music. 

I chuckled lightly “Yes, thats perfect.” 

“See I told you” Lea smiled sweetly. 

We listened to the music as we ate and finished off two more glasses of champagne each. I put all of our dishes back onto the room service tray to set out in the hall. I walked back over to where Lea was still sitting on the floor and took a seat next to her leaning my head on her shoulder. 

“How often would you get room service growing up Di?” 

I thought for a second “Not really that often, mom usually has food but if there was a night I wasn’t doing anything and my parents were out Jason and I would order in room service.” 

There was a moment of silence before I spoke again turning so that I was facing Lea. “When we first moved here I actually had my room a castle theme.”

Lea faced me “I’m having a hard time picturing you in a room that was pink and princessy.”

“Well actually there wasn’t any pink, it was greys and reds, much more medieval and very magical.”

A soft smile formed on Lea’s lips “Now that sounds more like you, how come you changed it?” 

“I got older, I wanted something more sophisticated as a teenager.”

Lea liked our arms “You are kind of an old soul.”

I chuckled “Yeah kind of.” 

“What would your future prince look like Di?”

“Um” I thought for a second “My perfect prince would be tall, tan, athletic, he would be a true gentleman, very caring, creative. Actually if you had a brother I would probably date him.” 

“Really?”

“Yeah Le, cause I mean you are very pretty so if you had a brother I assume he would be handsome and he would also probably have the same values you do.”

“I kind of wish I had a brother for you then.” Lea laughed “And thanks for saying I am pretty.”

I smiled at her “Well you are.” 

Lea sat up a little straighter “You could date Jonathan!”

I furrowed my eyebrows “Um, Lea, Jon is gay, I don’t really think Im his type.”

“Oh, yeah I forgot, I just got so excited about that prospect that I didn’t really think about that, well thats okay Jon will still be our friend.” 

I rolled my eyes but was still smiling “If I hadn’t have mentioned that fact you would have tried to set us up wouldn’t you have.” 

“WHAT, no, I would have remembered.”

“Sure Le.”

“I would have.”

“I know” I said kissing her cheek. “What about you Le, your perfect prince?” 

I could tell she was thinking. “He would also be tall but thats not really a problem considering my height, muscly, and also a gentleman, with a lot of passion.”

“Sounds like a great guy.”

“MmmHmm, Im kind of tired, do you wanna go get in bed.”

“Yeah I like the sound of that, Im super tired, plus all of the champagne this evening.” I stood up and offered my hand to Lea who took it. 

After a few minutes Lea was out like a light and for some reason I now had a burst of energy. I walked over to my desk and opened my laptop. I had just joined a site named ‘Tumblr’ which seemed pretty cool as a blogging site. 

I hadn’t posted anything yet but I sure did love browsing around. Eventually I made my way over to youtube and browsed around there. It was around 2am and I was getting hungry. I went into the kitchen to find my mom pulling out chips and salsa. 

She looked up and smiled at me as I sat on one of the barstools “Lamb, I should have known you would be awake at this hour.”

It was well known in my family that I can be quite the night owl, I see nothing wrong with being creative (sometimes not) until wee hours of the morning and then sleeping in until the afternoon. My mom sat on the next barstool with the chips and salsa between us. 

“I wish I could spend more time up here mom, I have missed you guys.” 

“That would be nice, we have missed you too, but Im so proud of you right now Dianna, this is your time to shine.” 

“Right now there are no signs of slowing down either, but Im so happy with everything.”

“Your flight tomorrow is at three, yes?”

“Yeah.”

“I wanna take you and Lea to an early lunch.”

“That sounds great mom, we can spend the whole morning together and then lunch will be really nice.” 

We chatted for a little while longer before we both headed to bed. Lea was spread out taking up most of the bed which made me quietly laugh. Somehow without her walking up I was able to roll her over to her side of the bed and crawl in. 

______________________________________________________________________

The next morning was wonderful spending it with my mom and Lea. We had lunch and were back on the plane to Los Angeles. Happiest of all at our return was Sheila who went about as crazy as a cat can go. 

Half an hour later of me not unpacking and just laying on my bed staring at the ceiling lost in my thoughts Lea came into my room. She sat on the bed and picked up my hand lightly massaging it. 

“Pizza, couch, and reality tv?” Lea asked. 

“But I don’t feel like talking on the phone.” I stuck my bottom lip out in an exaggerated pout. 

Lea stood up still holding onto my hand “I already ordered, just come to the couch.”

Still holding on to Lea’s hand I got up and we walked into the living room. I must have fallen asleep after sitting down on the couch because next thing I knew there was a pizza on the coffee table and a small brunette lightly stroking my cheek. 

“You drifted off my lady.” 

“Sorry Le Le I guess I was tired.” I sat up swinging my legs off of the couch allowing room for Lea to sit next to me. 

“Well you didn’t come back to bed last night for a while so I figured you would be tired” she said placing a strand of hair behind my ear. 

“I didn’t know you were awake... I was in the kitchen talking to my mom.”

“I wasn’t really awake, I just felt the bed shift and put two and two together.” 

I put my hand on the other side of her face to cup her cheek while I kissed the cheek that was facing me. I turned to the tv and grabbed a piece of pizza, I also noticed that Lea had poured us sodas. 

In between bites Lea asked “You were mumbling in your sleep Di, do you remember your dream?”

A few seconds of trying to remember “No I don’t. Was it like I was scared mumbling?”

“No it was more just like having a normal conversation mumbling.”

“Now I wish I actually could remember!”

A few more bites of pizza “You know Lea, you have actually been talking in your sleep a few times now, once it was actually in Spanish.” 

“That’s really weird considering I don’t speak it.”

“That’s what I was thinking, you had the accent and everything.” 

We finished the pizza and went into Lea’s room to watch a movie grabbing popcorn and candy on the way. 

Lea was laying flat leaning against the pillows. I had decided to curl up next to her. I had my head on her shoulder with my arm over her stomach and my fingers linked with hers. We were watching The Italian Job which Lea had proclaimed that it was an ‘action movie kind of night’. I didn’t mind, it’s one of my favorite movies. 

About halfway through the movie Lea started playing footsie. This was common of our movie watching nights. I had just ran my foot along the bottom of hers when she took back control and moved her foot to the bottom of mine. A couple minutes later of her doing this I noticed something I had not before. This was actually turning me on. 

I froze as she was the one moving her foot. How could this possibly be, I had never had that happen with a girl before, just my previous boyfriends. I made my self ease up just a little bit out of my frozen state. I pushed the confusion I was having to the back of my mind and tried very hard to focus on the movie. 

Soon enough the movie was over. Lea asked if I would stay in her room for the night and I sad yes. We turned the tv off and Lea pulled me to her side. I slipped one of my legs through hers as she pulled my arm over her stomach with her back facing me. I sighed contently as I snuggled into her and we both fell asleep.


	5. Just The Way You Are

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Nothing here do I own.. Like Usual

Lea and I stood in the middle of our living room staring around at all of our clothes strewn about in piles of sorted laundry. I turned to Lea “This is going to take us forever.”

“I didn’t know we had this many clothes.” 

“Maybe we should sort out the clothes we definitely know we are not taking with us to Australia.”

“Yeah... I’ll start on the dark if you go through the light.” Lea said already making her way over to the dark colored piles. 

I looked over at the light colored piles “Deal.”

We were in the midst of doing all of our laundry for our Glee promotion tour of Australia. Sheila was feeling none of the stress as she was curled up on the couch watching our every movement. About half an hour later we had our first load in the washer and were laying slightly exhausted on the couch. 

All of a sudden I was knocked sideways onto the couch and flipped on my back with Lea laughing at me. I was breathing heavily having not expected that “What are you doing, you knocked the air out of me.”

Lea was still laughing “You just weren’t expecting that, I thought it was particularly funny.” 

“Sometimes you have too much energy.” 

“I like catching you off guard.” Lea put two fingers to her temple and twisted them “Salmon skin roll.”

I was laughing heartily at her reference to FRIENDS “I love that episode.” 

She settled down on top of me and laid her head on my chest. I wrapped my arms around her and placed a kiss onto the top of her head. “How is doing laundry so tiring.” 

“I think it’s the fact that we already washed dishes and took out the trash.”

“And vacuumed and dusted.” We wanted to make sure everything was clean before we left on our trip. 

Lea raised her head up “We ate in there too right, cause I actually cant remember.” 

“Yeah, we went and got veggie dogs at Pinks.”

“Oh yeah, I remember now!” 

“Since we got a lot done this morning lets just lay here until we have to switch the laundry.” I suggested while leaning my head back down onto the couch and closing my eyes. 

Lea snuggled more into me “You don’t have to bribe me lady Di.” 

“Well that’s good to hear.” I had started running my fingers through Leas hair when she reached up and wove our fingers together and rested our hands beside my head. 

“Just to let you know Di, I fully plan on using you as a pillow on the plane.”

“And you are warning me of this, I mean I was planning on using you as my own personal pillow so I think that works out well.” 

“Don’t forget to bring movies.”

“How about you go through my movies and pick the ones you wanna bring Le.” 

“That sounds good, I’ll get on that after we change out the laundry next.”

After getting the laundry switched over we went to pick up sushi and were sitting on the floor eating it with candles lit all around. We were laid out on our stomachs facing each other, a complete spread of sauces and different sushi and sides spread in front of us. 

I dipped a roll into some wasabi “We should make this a monthly thing.” 

“I like that idea, I’m in” Lea answered popping a bite into her mouth. “Do you have a lot of extra stuff planned for down under?” 

“Yeah I have researched quite a bit to do! There are landmarks to go see and there are penguin nests and art exhibits.”

“Sounds like you packed your schedule!”

“Want to come on some of the stuff with me Lea?”

Lea looked down at her food “I kind of would, but I mean I would hate to impose on your schedule.”

“Oh please Lea, like that could be possible, okay you are dropping the afternoon naps I’m sure you planned and coming with me.” 

“Well if you insist.”

I rolled my eyes. “Oh gosh.”

“Can I take my favorite scarf of yours to wear Di?”

“Of course.” I smiled “Make sure you take the knit hat that goes with it, it looks really nice on you.”

Lea leaned over the food to place a kiss on my cheek leaving the smile on my face. If there was brighter light than candles she could have seen the blush that was involuntarily creeping over my cheeks. We finished eating and changed out the laundry once again before heading to sleep. 

______________________________________________________________________

Suitcases and bags were by the door and there was half an hour before the car service Fox had arranged to pick us up would arrive. Lea and I were sitting on the couch clutching our pillows with blankets tucked inside of them. 

“After Ryan told us the flight would be over 18 hours with a stop over in Sydney I looked it up and there was a non stop flight to Melbourne that is 15 hours” Lea scowled.

“Yeah I didn’t really understand why either.” I responded leaning my head back onto the back of our couch. 

“We should have banded together as a cast and said something at least!” 

Lea hadn’t stopped talking about this for a couple of days. I rolled my head over and rested my head onto her shoulder and looped my arm through hers “More cuddling time on the plane for us then.”

“You are right Di” Lea said laying her head on top of mine “At least we are in first class.” 

I nodded my head against her arm “Im still raiding one of the little shops past security to get snacks to take onto the plane.”

“And we need to get coffee as well.”

I smiled “Sounds great love.” 

“Is your camera all packed?” 

“Yeah, I triple checked everything, I’m so excited, do you have everything yourself?” 

“Yep, I’m all ready for some koalas, and wallabies, and kangaroos.”

“And the worlds most poisonous snakes.”

Lea’s eyes widened “What?”

“Yeah Australia has the worlds most poisonous snakes.” 

“Now I’m kind of scared.”

I readjusted my head on her shoulder “Lea Michele Sarfati is never scared.”

“I am when there are deadly snakes involved, I know we wont be near them, but still.”

“Yup.” 

Lea placed a kiss onto my head “You can’t fall asleep till we get on the plane.”

“Im very much awake, I promise you.” 

“Quick how many fingers am I holding up?”

I kept my eyes closed and decided to take a guess “Four.”

“Oh my gosh it was four and you didn’t open your eyes!”

“I’ve told you I’m a witch.” I said with a smirk on my face.

“No you’re not.”

I chuckled “It’s cause you don’t believe in my powers.”

“Yes thats it.”

“Yeah it is.” I responded jokingly. 

“Can you magically make a coffee appear in my hand?”

I opened my eyes and lifted my head to kiss Leas cheek “No.”

She squinted her eyes “Why not?” 

“Thats not in my powers description.”

“Aw come on!” Lea puffed out her lower lip into a pout. 

“I’ll buy you Starbucks with my magical Starbucks card.”

“So it actually is in your powers description” she raised an eyebrow. 

“Sure, why not.”

“I knew it” Lea more or less whispered to herself which made me laugh. 

Our phones both vibrated with a text from Ryan saying that our car was there. We took our suitcases and headed towards LAX. 

We all made it to the airport and through security without any problems. Lea found a Starbucks and promptly drug Jenna and I through there. We made it to our gate and Jenna and I ventured off with Kevin to a magazine shop. 

Jenna walked up to a stand of neck pillows “Guys I have an idea for a picture.” 

She handed kevin her phone and we both took two neck pillows each and closed our eyes to make the picture look like we were really tired and needed all of the pillows we could get. After the picture we found all of the snacks we would want to take on the plane, which I may have stuffed my purse with to actually take them all on the plane. 

I walked over to where the boys were all sitting and handed them each a candy bar warning them to save it for the flight. Mark stood up and and spun me around muttering something about ‘hot baby mama’. Chris squealed like I had just given him gold. I handed Cory one and he pulled me onto his lap and kissed my cheek. 

“Do you boys never get candy?” I asked from Cory’s lap. 

Cory was the one to answer “We just never get candy from beautiful girls.” 

I threw my arms around his neck “You poor poor things” I said with a touch of sarcasm. 

Cory put his arms around my waist “Will you sit with me on the plane Di? And maybe share candy?” 

“Sorry Cory, Im spoken for, but you could sit in front of me, closer to the candy.”

Mark perked up at that “You have more candy Di? Cory I’m sitting by you.” 

I rolled my eyes and laughed, they were sure taking advantage of this flight having open seating. They then called for passenger line up to board and we all made our way on and found seats. 

Lea and I waited until take off and the seatbelt sign was turned off to make our selves comfortable. I pulled out the blankets, candy, and drinks out while Lea adjusted the pillows. We even got a movie set up on my laptop. 

We had taken off at 10:30pm pacific time so it was dark outside the window. The movie was almost over but I had not payed much attention to it as my eyes kept closing half way through. I was sitting in the window seat, Lea had her back against most of my front and I had my arm around her. 

As the credits rolled I opened my eyes back up again and closed my computer. I looked down and Lea was peacefully asleep. A smile formed on my lips and I leaned down to place a kiss on her head. I took a look around at all of my sleeping friends and closed my eyes to try and get some sleep as well. 

Several hours later my eyes fluttered open, Lea was in roughly the same spot except while I was asleep she had linked our fingers together. I used my free hand to look at my phone for the time, 8 hours had passed. 

“Di?” Lea whispered. 

I put my phone back in my bag “Hmmm?”

Lea shifted so even though she was still leaning on me she could see my face. “How far are we into our flight?”

“8 hours, did my movement wake you?”

She smiled and shook her head “No, just happened to wake.”

I smiled back looking into her eyes “I found your favorite pop tarts in the airport and I got some.”

“You did!” Lea said excitedly yet in a whisper. 

I bit my lip and nodded pulling a package out of my purse. I opened it and handed Lea one of the pop tarts and placed a bite of mine into my mouth. 

“Thank you so much Di!” Lea exclaimed with her mouth full of pop tart. 

“You are very welcome!” 

Cory’s head popped up over the seat in front of us “Did I hear you two whispering about Lea’s favorite pop tarts?” 

I reached into my purse to pull out another and handed it to him. He unwrapped it quickly and took a bite “You two are the best girls in the world, thank you, I love you both.”

Lea and I quietly laughed “Thanks Cory.”

Cory took another bite “Are you girls excited?”

I nodded my head “Yes!”

“Dianna has already planned out her whole schedule to not miss anything, it’s quite impressive!” 

I squeezed my arms around Lea “Thanks Le.” 

“Is Mark asleep?”

Cory had finished his pop tart “Yeah, he looks kind of like a puppy right now.”

“And you don’t have your flipcam out?” I questioned with an eyebrow raise. 

“You don’t have your’s out Di.”

I chuckled “I don’t have anything to film Cory.”

Kevin looked over at us from across the isle “Hold up, did Ms Dianna Elise Agron just say she does not have anything to film, the world is coming to an end.” 

“You boys are loopy” I joked. 

Kevin squinted his eyes at Lea and I and then pulled out his camera “Stay right there girls, you guys are way to cute to let that moment go uncaptured.” 

I rolled my eyes but held Lea tighter as Kevin snapped the picture. After that both boys returned to what they had been doing. Lea laid her head on my shoulder and her lips barely grazed my neck sending a shiver down my spine. 

“Are you cold Di?”

“Um, yeah.” I answered, it seemed good enough to me. 

Lea pulled the blankets around us more as her hand found mine again and she let out a content sigh with a smile on her face. “Better?” 

I nodded “Yeah.” 

Lea opened my laptop back up “Do you still have checkers on here?” 

I moved the cursor to open the game and we started playing. “Have you ever thought about what member of the cast would be what animal Le?” 

Lea quietly laughed “Yeah I have, Jenna would be a panda.”

“I feel like Kevin would be a lemur.” I said while jumping over one of Lea’s checkers pieces. 

“Cory would be a polar bear.”

I laughed “Chris would be a narwhal.”

Lea looked at me in confusion “A narwhal?” 

“Yeah, he is unique and so are narwhals.”

“Okay, well I feel like Amber would be an owl and I don’t know why.” 

I chuckled “You don’t have to know why, I just said Chris would be a narwhal. Naya would be a puppy.”

“Heather would be a swan.”

“Oh that’s good I like that.” I beamed. 

“This is starting to get silly, Oh look I won!” She pointed to the laptop screen. 

I rolled my eyes at Lea even though she looked so adorable “Okay okay.” 

I closed my computer and Lea leaned back into me. I wrapped my arms back around her as she pulled the blanket up further. “What is your favorite animal Dianna?”

“Elephants, yours are Koalas am I right?”

Lea softly chuckled “Yeah right now its Koalas, they are just so adorable, hey can Chris be a llama narwhal?” 

“Oh my gosh, um yeah why not” I smiled. 

“Good because I really feel like a llama fits in there.”

I laughed again “I actually think I understand that.” 

Lea and I talked for several more hours until we were making our decent into Sydney. I was practically jumping up and down in my seat pointing out of the window. We had put everything back into their places and waited as we taxied up to the gate. As we all exited into the airport to make our way to our next gate I was still bouncing around with Lea holding my hand to provide some grounding. 

We all proceeded to our next gate to Melbourne and I let go of Lea to go stare out of the window. I had always wanted to go to Australia and there I was, on a far away continent full of new things I could not wait to experience. 

Apparently I had been standing there lost in my thoughts for a while when Lea came up and handed me a coffee while wrapping an arm around me laying her head on my shoulder. 

“I thought you would like an Australian coffee.”

I smiled at her “Yes, thank you, I can’t believe we are finally here Le.”

“I can’t either, I don’t know if it is because I’m tired or what, but the fact that we were just in America and now we are in Australia is like blowing my mind.”

“I totally understand that, I mean think about the fact that the original Europeans who came here came by boat, BOAT, I mean thats crazy.”

Lea looked up at me with a grin on her face “We should all go on a cruise sometime.”

I nodded my head “That sounds like fun Lea, where to?”

She was quiet for a moment “I’m thinking the Caribbean.”

“Well let’s run that by the others sometime.”

Lea leaned up to kiss my cheek “Deal.” 

She walked away leaving me to the view out of the window again. Moments later we began boarding for our flight to Melbourne. Once on the plane as I was about to sit down a man grabbed my faced and kissed me. I was shocked as I felt Lea push him off of me and start yelling at him. 

I sank down into my seat when a stewardess turned around “You two be quiet!” she said pointing at Lea and I. 

Lea had an even angrier expression “No! That man just kissed my friend!” 

Lea yelled at the man to go back to his seat then she sat back down in hers. She brushed some of my hair out of my face and cupped my cheek in her hand “Are you okay honey?” 

I looked at Lea with my eyes still wide and nodded my head at which she tried to hide her frown of not believing me and moved her hand down to mine to link our fingers. I managed to sink further down into my chair and throughout the flight kept narrowing my eyes and kept my lips squeezed tight. 

The whole situation caught me extremely off guard. Lea kept looking over at me with worry all over her face. Sure I was shaken up but I knew I would be okay, just taken back. I was quiet while we all exited the plane and gathered our bags from baggage claim while Lea always managed to keep physical contact with me. Our cars to take us all to the hotel were running late so Lea pulled me a little ways away from the others. 

She slowly ran her hands up and down my arms “Are you sure you are okay Di, you haven’t said anything.” 

I smiled at her “I’m sure, I am just a little shocked by it, it caught me off guard, thanks for pushing that guy off of me.”

“I would do anything for you Dianna” She leaned in for a hug. 

We stayed in that hug for several minutes just holding each other until our cars arrived. I took an outside seat while Lea sat in the middle with Jenna on her other side. I took out my camera to take pictures of the Australian countryside. Lea had one of her hands on my knee and her other hand drawing shapes on my back. 

“I love watching you take pictures” Lea said in a quiet voice.

I handed Kevin in the front seat my camera “Kevin will you take a picture of the three of us?”

“Of course lady.” Kevin took the camera and us three girls squished together to fit in the frame. 

He handed the camera back to me and I turned it around to capture a candid of him “Thanks bee.” 

I put my camera in my bag and Lea took the opportunity when I leaned back to hold my hand again and then I leaned my head on her shoulder. We quickly entered into the city and the buildings grew taller. At the hotel Fox had gotten each of us our own suite and after checking in we all headed to our rooms. Lea was excited that our rooms were next door and were connected. 

I was laying on my bed when Lea entered my room and laid down next to me “How are you doing?” 

“Tired.”

“Everyone is thinking of going out to eat soon, Im hoping you wanna come with.”

I smiled “That sounds great.”

Lea sent a text on her phone “Okay we are all meeting in the lobby in thirty minutes but you are staying by me the whole time.”

“I’m not objecting.”

“Good cause you really don’t have a choice my lady.” Lea joked running her fingers through my hair. 

“Thinking about food is making me really hungry.”

Lea grinned “I know, me too, I want like five of everything.”

“You would be huge.”

She shrugged “Hey if it’s good I don’t really care.”

“Oh my gosh” I said rolling my eyes but smiling because I could eat five of everything too. 

“What! I’m totally serious.”

I laughed “I actually know you are.” 

“Wanna beat everyone else down to the lobby and show off?”

“Um, yeah, lets go.” I grabbed Lea’s hand, our purses, my camera and headed out the door. 

Luckily the restaurant wasn’t too crowded and we all sat at a long table with Lea on my left and Kevin on my right. I was tired and still somewhat shaken from the plane so I remained mostly quiet through dinner. Lea picked up on this and made sure to hold my hand. 

Lea turned to me “Dessert?”

“But of course!”

She slid the dessert menu in between us “I’m really wanting chocolate.”

I pointed to the menu “Chocolate chip brownie with vanilla bean ice cream.”

“I wonder if we can get that drizzled with a chocolate glaze?”

“I would think so.”

“Do you wanna split that with me?” Lea looked like a little puppy asking. 

“Yeah.” 

We all ordered dessert and it was brought shortly. Lea took a bite “Oh my word this is the most heavenly thing I’ve ever tasted.” 

“It’s the chocolate drizzle.” I said scooping up another bite and nodding. 

We all finished and started our way back to the hotel. I had my camera out and was taking pictures of everyone else. Some just candid and some I stopped everyone to pose them and compose my shot. It was cold and all of us were bundled in our jackets and scarves and I couldn’t resist the wonderful picture opportunities that presented themselves. 

Quickly we made it back to our warm rooms. I was setting my camera bag back down off of my bed when Lea came bouncing into my room “So I was getting ready for bed but I need my cuddle time with you so I can fall asleep.”

Lea walked over to me and hugged me, I hugged her back tighter and we stayed like that for a moment. She leaned back still with her arms around me and smiled at me. I smiled back and she leaned up and pecked my lips with hers. 

When I looked back questioningly at her after she pulled away she took my hand and led us back over to my bed “Now I am the last one to have kissed you, I want my cuddle time now.” 

She pulled me closer on the bed while I sat there in confusion. I knew that Lea was a very affectionate person but I didn’t think we were close enough for that. It may have been a friendly kiss but the fact that I had been kind of wanting something like that to happen but knowing it never would and the fact that I now knew what Lea’s lips felt like was making my head spin. 

Hours went by and Lea had fallen asleep while I stayed awake going over that kiss again and again. Sleep was evading me, carefully crawling out of bed as to not wake Lea I went and got my laptop. I decided to go on tumblr and make my first post talking about being in Australia. 

I finished up the post I had typed and decided that since there were interviews later that day that I should get some sleep. I looked down at Lea who was soundly asleep and smiled before curling up into her to cuddle and fall asleep with her in my arms. 

______________________________________________________________________

 

The day flew by in a whirlwind of coffee and promoting Glee. Lea and I had arrived on Phillip Island to see the penguin parade at dusk where they return to their nests. 

“My feet are hurting Di.” 

“It’s because you’ve been pretty much up on them all day.” I said in a soft tone looping my arm through Lea’s. 

“How long till that advil starts to kick in?”

I looked at my phone for the time “You only took it fifteen minutes ago.”

“It’s gonna take forever.” 

“Oh, sweetie no it’s not.” I reassured her. 

I looked up at the field next to us and saw a wallaby. I stopped Lea and pointed, then got out my camera and we continued walking. We came up to the fence that separated everyone from the nests. There were penguins everywhere, I was so excited. Pictured were not allowed but I think that all the flashed and clicks would have ruined the experience. 

I leaned down at the fence to get a good look at them. Some came up to me and I just stared at them in awe. Eventually they wandered away as the sun was well past the horizon. I stood up and smiled at Lea as she smiled back and snuck her hand into mine. 

We made our way back into Melbourne for a flight back to Sydney. We arrived at our hotel in Sydney and got into our rooms. I had laid out on my bed and written another tumblr post when there was a knock at the door. I opened it up to find Lea. 

“I was just thinking about you Le.”

She came inside and I closed the door. “I really wanted to cuddle asleep again” she turned to me “I hope you don’t mind.”

I walked up to her and put my arms around her “Not at all.” 

Lea smiled “Good” and then she pulled me over to my bed grabbing the tv remote. 

“We get to sleep in in the morning, I’m so excited about that.”

“Me too” Lea snugged further into me. 

I looked at her “Let’s order breakfast in the morning and eat it out on the balcony.” 

Lea’s eyes lit up “Crepes!” 

“Yes, you read my mind!” 

“I can’t wait for breakfast with you in the morning lady, goodnight” Lea said and then she kissed the corner of my mouth and wrapped her arm back around me. 

I pulled her arm more around me “Goodnight love.”

We woke up in the morning after having slept wonderfully and smiled at each other. “Did you sleep good?”

Lea nodded her head “Yes I did.” 

“Me too, I just ordered breakfast so it should be here soon.”

Lea smiled “Thank goodness because I am starving!”

“I know I heard your stomach rumbling along with mine.” It had actually reached a point to where it sounded like a monster. “I feel like our morning needs a playlist.”

I went up and got my laptop and crawled back up onto the bed again. We spent nearly thirty minutes making a playlist while waiting for our food. Once it arrived we wheeled the cart out onto the balcony and pressed play on my laptop then set it outside. All of the food was good and once we were done we pushed the cart back into the hallway to be picked up and went back outside to lay on a chaise and drink coffee. 

“It’s beautiful here.” I said in a quiet voice so as not to take too much attention away from the ambiance. 

“I’m so glad I’m not one of those runners.” Lea said pointing down to the street. 

I slipped my hand into Lea’s “I don’t have enough energy for that.” 

“This coffee is doing nothing to wake me up.” Lea said pouting a little as she set her coffee cup back on the table. 

I chuckled at her adorableness “Sorry love.”

She shrugged “It’s okay, I do feel rested from sleeping in.”

“Yes sleeping in was fantastic!” 

Lea turned slightly so that her face was towards me “I wanted to ask you something Di, about Quinn.”

“Yeah?”

“Well” Lea began “I was wondering if you had been in her situation in high school, would you keep the baby or go towards adoption?”

“Honestly Le, I would try and find a way to keep the baby and raise it.” 

Lea smiled at me “That’s what I would do as well, I just don’t think I could bare giving up my child, I don’t know how some mothers do, i just, i couldn’t bare it.”

“I know, I’m not strong enough to do that either, I think it is because I build such a strong emotional bond, that I would have to find a way to keep it, and while my parents would have been pissed if that had happened to me, they would have started loving that child from the moment it was known about.” 

Lea draped her arm over my stomach “That is how mine are as well. Although there would have more Italian yelling but once all of my very protective uncles found out there would pretty much be no discussion, they would celebrate there being another family member. I mean its what they do at weddings.”

At that I laughed and eventually we made our way inside to get ready for the press that we were required to do that day. 

______________________________________________________________________

The next morning I woke up to something completely unexpected. I looked out the window and there was a dust storm. At first I swore I was dreaming but once the realization that I wasn’t seeped in I started to panic a little. I turned on the tv in hopes that the news would assure me that the world was not coming to an end. Apparently this was the first dust storm in Sydney, it was so unlike the desert sandstorms I had been caught in before, it was just Orange. 

Still even through the dust storm we went about our appearances. We spend the afternoon going to a pond and then I managed to coerce everyone into taking a ferry to see the opera house. I was going picture crazy. We were all standing at the front of the boat and Lea was leaning against the railing. I walked up and leaned against her back. 

“Having a good day Di?” 

I rested my head on her shoulder “Yes I am.”

She leaned her head against mine “I’m glad, I am too, I’ve always wanted to see the opera house.”

“Do you remember they showed on tv at the start of the new millennia, they showed the fireworks over the opera house and the bridge.” 

“I do remember that, I never thought I would see it in person.”

“Neither did I.” I showed Lea the picture of her I had taken a little earlier with the opera house in the background. 

The day passed by wonderfully and I had a permanent smile on my face. As I was getting ready for bed Lea bounced through the door. “Di, come sleep in my room!” She gave a shy smile and bounced right back out again. 

I finished getting ready for bed and headed into Lea’s room. “Lea, don’t invite someone into your room and then not be here.” I said even though I figured she was just in the bathroom. 

She came out and jumped onto the bed “I had to brush my teeth, they were stinky.” 

I chuckled to myself. 

“What’s up for tomorrow Di?”

We climbed into bed “The aquarium!” 

Lea laid down and I snuggled into her. She kissed my head “You can get to see some octopus there!”

I smiled widely “I know, I am so overjoyed!” 

“Goodnight room. Goodnight moon. Goodnight cow jumping over the moon. Goodnight light and the red balloon.” Lea quoted softly. 

“Goodnight bears. Goodnight chairs. Goodnight kittens. Goodnight mittens. Goodnight clocks and goodnight socks.” I quoted softly back.

“Goodnight little house and goodnight mouse. Goodnight comb and goodnight brush. Goodnight nobody. Goodnight mush and goodnight to the old lady whispering, “hush”.” She continued. 

“Goodnight stars, goodnight air. Goodnight noises everywhere.” I finished kissing the tip of Lea’s nose and then lightly her lips. 

______________________________________________________________________

Jenna, Matt, and I were standing in front of a large shark tank when we noticed a large manta ray. I pointed to him “We should name him.”

Jenna took a step closer to the class and after a few seconds spun around to face us “Henry.”

I looked back at the manta ray “I like it.”

Matt nodded “He needs a middle name, how about Paul.”

Jenna chuckled “Perfect, Henry Paul.”

I smirked “Wait guys I got this, it may be a little The Little Mermaid but how about Henry Sebastian Paul.”

That made the other two laugh and nod their heads in agreement as we took off to find the rest of the cast. 

Pictures flew by and we were at Taronga Zoo. They let us interact with the animals up close which was such a unique experience. Im usually slightly opposed to zoos however at Taronga the animals are small and have large habitats similar to their own in the wild. Several were injured and could not live free. I made sure to take pictures of all of the cast with the animals and even handed my camera off to have pictures taken of myself with the animals. 

That night I was going through my pictures I had taken so far on the trip when Lea came in. She sat down next to me and started running her fingers through my hair as an episode of Friends played on my tv. As I finally closed my laptop she had elaborate braided my hair. 

“I feel like I didn’t get to see enough of you today Le.” I said turning towards her. 

She smirked and stretched out her arms so I could fall into them “I’m here now.”

“Yes you are love, did you like the pictures?”

She nodded “I did, you’re so talented Di, they were absolutely amazing.”

I blushed a turned my head slightly away “Thanks.”

She giggled “Of course honey, it’s all true, we should hang some up in our apartment.”

I smiled widely “I think we will definitely have to do that.” 

“Are you ready for sleepy sleep lady?” Lea pulled me closer to her.

“Yeah.”

Lea took my hands in hers “It’s that snake you held earlier, holding snakes can wear even the strongest, prettiest of blond cheerleaders out.” 

“Ah, but they are no match for Rachel Berry and her elliptical.” I chuckled 

“Nope, they are no contest.” She agreed. 

“I kind of don’t want to leave Australia, will you stay here with me Le?”

Lea brought her thumb and index finger up to her chin and exaggeratingly thought for a moment “Yes, but I require coffee but that shouldn’t be a problem so heck why not, lets stay in Australia.” 

I laughed “We shall tell the others in the morning.”

“I want a pet kangaroo, so we have to buy a larch ranch.”

I nodded my head in agreement “Yes, and horses Le, that way we can ride them around to keep track of our pet kangaroo, but you can’t get to close to it cause I don’t want it to hurt you beautiful.” 

Lea nodded “Yeah and you cant get too close to it either, you are way too freakin gorgeous.”

I kissed her cheek at the complement “No but really, I’m gonna miss it.”

“We still have your pictures lady Di.” Lea added

“We have your pictures too.” 

Lea let out a hearty chuckle “Yeah, but they don’t hold a candle to yours, I’m actually partially wondering if your camera is made of magic.” 

I kept my face straight “Yes it is.” 

“Well then, I guess I’ve got myself a magical nordic elven goddess photographer roommate, I’m keeping you.” Lea played along.

I blushed “And I’m keeping you my little Italian with an angelic voice that was blessed by the moon and the stars.”

I stared into Lea’s eyes as she stared into mine and we entered into a moment where the rest of the world disappeared. I bit my lip knowing that the moment would break but not being the one to do so, I decided to let Lea be the one. The moment kept going a little longer as our faces were only inches apart. 

“My eyes are getting a little tired, we should probably get some sleep.” Lea whispered so as not to subtract too much from our moment. She smiled and pressed her lips quickly to mine in what we had started as a goodnight kiss every night as we both laid down to enter into dreamland.


	6. Starships

You know those moments? The ones that just leave you in awe and take your breath away. Where there’s no way in hell you could believe what is happening to you. The magical movie moments. I had that very moment. 

Lea nudged me out of my thoughts “I can’t believe we got to sing the National Anthem at the World Series.” She whispered. 

I smiled back at her “Me either, we are so lucky!” I whispered back. 

Kevin came over and tugged on us “Picture time girls.” 

We took pictures and soon we were being escorted back to our hotel for the night. I had been in my room for ten minutes when there was banging on the door. I went to open it and found the others opening their doors as well. 

Cory stood in the middle of the hallway “We can’t just not do anything on Halloween.” 

Mark came up behind him from his room “There’s an Ihop attached to the hotel, let’s go guys.” 

We all grabbed our room keys and followed Mark down to the lobby and through the doors to Ihop. 

We sat down at the table Mark had apparently prearranged “We always end up at Ihop.” Jenna chuckled. 

Cory clinked the water glass in from of him “I bet you’re wondering why I summoned you all here.” 

I raised an eyebrow “Pumpkin pancakes?” 

Lea chucked and bumped my foot with hers. 

Cory smirked “We can’t take over the world without pumpkin pancakes” he looked at the rest of the group “And that is why Di is second in command.” 

“What?” Amber asked “What are you talkin about?” 

Cory ignored her question and pulled the small backpack he had brought down with him onto his lap. After digging around he pulled out witch hats and handed one to each of us. 

“Witch hats weren’t part of the plan man.” Mark said while turning the hat over in his hands. 

Cory adjusted the hat on his head “What plan was that dude? I just thought a little mischievousness would be fun.” 

“You mean I made all of those call for nothing!” Mark replied to Cory. 

He laughed “No, I’m kidding, it’s still on.” 

“What is on you boys, I’d really like to know.” Amber said still confused as the rest of us. 

Cory smirked again “Oh you will see.” 

Somehow after eating the boys had bribed us to get into a van that was driving us to who knows where.   
“How did we agree to this?” Lea asked clutching my arm. 

“The adrenalin rush from earlier?” I suggested. 

“We’re here!” Mark said as the van pulled to a stop. 

Kevin was first to comment with a gasp “Halloween laser tag.” 

Cory was practically prancing with delight as he handed each of us our vests and laser guns. 

I took my laser gun with a little hesitation “This better not turn out like that paintball trip you planned.” 

He got all of our attention while avoiding my comment “Okay, boys vs girls, Go!” 

We all ran inside and I took a hiding spot behind a roughed up couch decorated with cobwebs to add to the spooky atmosphere. I raised my head barely above the back of the couch and was able to tag Mark. I smirked as I quickly ducked back down. 

A minute later Jenna came army crawling towards me. “Have you been gotten yet?” 

I shook my head “No, you?” 

“Three times by Kevin.” 

“Well you don’t want that in a fake love interest.” She laughed at my input and situated herself next to me. 

“I saw Lea staking Cory to try and tag him, she is so tiny she can just slink along the wall.” Jenna added. 

“That’s a really funny image, theres a table with a back over there.. Wanna make a run for it?” 

Jenna linked our arms together “Let’s go.” 

We dashed across and made it without either of us being tagged. We took turns popping our heads up over the table to see if anyone was coming. Jenna had managed to get Kevin a couple of times and I had managed to hit Chris as he sprinted through. 

Jenna convinced me to go with her to another room of the laser tag set up. We narrowly missed Mark by diving behind a love seat and I had gotten tagged twice by Cory who sauntered off laughing. 

Finally we were situated behind a large scary decorated china cabinet. “Take that side and I’ll take this one.” Jenna said as she moved to keep a lookout on the side she had just mentioned. 

“Do you see anyone?” I asked her. 

“No.. Wait was that movement behind that chair?” 

I moved behind her so that I could get a better look “I don’t see anything.” 

“Something moved back there, but the boys wouldn’t be hiding cause they just wanna shoot things, maybe its Lea or Amber.” 

“Or Chris, he might would hide back there.” I said however I was proven wrong as he ran past us. “Or not.” 

“That’s Lea’s shoe!” Jenna said pointing at the tip of a boot that was sticking out from behind the chair.   
I pointed to behind a couch that was close to where Lea was at “I’m gonna run over there.” 

Before I could actually make a run for it however the game was called. We all emerged to find that the girls had won with Amber in the lead of most tags. Cory somewhat pouted at this but collected all of our laser guns. 

Mark pointed at Jenna and I “Where did you two even hide?” 

I looked at him with a straight face “The ceiling.” 

He had a puzzled expression to which Jenna and I just laughed. We all quickly headed back on the bus to the hotel to get some rest since we were headed to New York in the morning to start another round of Glee cd signings.


	7. Good Life

CH 7 - Good Life 

I heard a loud gasp once I had made my way to baggage claim. Lea came bounding up and threw her arms around me “I have missed you so much!” 

I hugged her back harder than she was hugging me “I’ve missed you too, so much.” 

I was just coming back from filming a movie in Europe and was missing Lea severely. We would be beginning to film the second half of Glee season one in a week but until then all I really wanted to do was lay on the couch and watch movies. That was it. 

“Well come on my little traveller, let’s get your bags and get home.” 

I chuckled “That sounds absolutely fantastic.” 

It didn’t take us long to find all of my bags and load them into Lea’s car. Soon enough we were zipping along the freeway towards home. “I missed palm trees.” I said glancing up out of the window. 

I heard Lea let out a small laugh “They have missed you.” 

I looked over at her and smiled before returning my gaze out my window. “I can’t wait to start filming again but I’m glad for the week break.” 

“About that” Lea started “I’ve told everyone that you and I will be busy and not to bother us and that they can say hello to you at work. I may have been a little selfish but I want a week alone with you.”   
I couldn’t respond for a moment because my heart was soaring. “That sounds like the absolutely perfect week.” I grinned ear to ear. 

She smirked keeping her eyes on the road “I’m glad.. How about pizza tonight” 

“Yes!” I replied excitedly. 

After a few minutes I spoke again “Let’s go to the beach this week! I know its the middle of winter but I really wanna go and walk around, maybe Newport?” 

“Anything you want my lady.” Lea smiled not taking her eyes off the road as we exited off of the freeway. 

We arrived home and soon I was showing Lea pictures I had taken while we waited for the pizza to arrive. I had made it through most of them by the time we started eating. As I paid the delivery guy Lea had hopped up to put in something for us to watch. I chuckled when I saw the start up to The OC. 

An episode passed and our pizza was gone with the box shoved to the other side of the coffee table. We were on our second glass of wine each and I had naturally scooted closer the Lea. I leaned forward to place my glass on the table and then leaned back to wrap my arms around her. I had missed the smell of her, one of my favorites. A wonderful mixture of her favorite perfume, lotion she had just put on, the smell of our laundry soap from the freshly clean tshirt she had put on when we arrived home, all mixing together into quintessential Lea. 

Lea barely turned her head to indicate that she was about to direct words at me “What was it like growing up near the coast?” 

I kept my voice in the same mellow tone as hers “You weren’t that far from a coast Le.” 

“I know but we barely went and it was different because it was quite crowded in the Summer and much too cold in the Winter.”

“Well it was more desolate for sure, cold even sometimes in the Summer. After school my friends and I would go to the beach to hang out for the afternoon. The little coastal towns were quite charming with all of their little shops. It was very magical.” 

Lea turned and kissed the side of my head “Have you ever wanted to live in a house on the beach?” 

I thought for a minute “Yeah, I have. But I don’t think it would be in the near future, to far from work.” I laughed. “What about you?” 

“I honestly never thought I would leave New York and I had never wanted to, it’s my city, but after being in LA I just really love it here. I think one day I could live on the beach but you’re right about it not being as convenient for work.” She smiled at me. 

I leaned forward and grabbed my glass of wine “To beach houses.” I raised my glass. 

Lea raised hers as well and clinked it against mine “To beach houses” she repeated and we both took drinks. 

We went back to watching the episode and I laid my head on Lea’s shoulder as the jet lag desperately tried to catch up with me. I fought to keep my eyes open which Lea must have noticed “Just go to sleep honey.” 

I bobbed my head up and down a couple times to show that I had heard her before I fell into a very peaceful Lea induced sleep full of dreams of beach houses and the future.

____________________________________________________________

 

I woke up very sore and I noticed that was from sleeping on the couch, but that meant I was home. Despite being a little sore I was much elated to wake up being wrapped around Lea. I could tell she was still asleep, even though she was turned away from me, because her breathing was so even she couldn’t not be. I scooted further into her and rested my forehead at the nape of her neck. 

I laid there for some time just memorizing every breath we both took. It made my heart flutter how in sync our breaths were, it scared me, but it was the best feeling. I was, though, growing a little restless for Lea to wake up as she was usually the morning person out of the two of us. I began tracing patterns along her back with my hand. 

“That tickles.” Came Lea’s soft sleepy morning voice, her pre coffee voice. 

She in no way implied that she wished me to stop. I switched from patterns to lightly running my nails up and down her back and she let out a very contented sigh. After a minute she rolled over to face me. We were so close and her eyes shown like millions of stars glistening in the night sky. It was mesmerizing and I just stared into them in awe, I had missed them. 

“What do you want to do today?” She whispered so as not to break the moment. 

Still staring into her eyes I replied “Build a blanket fort.” 

A small chuckle escaped her lips and ghosted over mine with the close proximity “That is absolutely perfect, your mom actually did mail that 3 foot by 3 foot box with all of those blankets in it, she even called and asked if it arrived.” Lea smiled widely. 

“I totally knew she would, it’s cause we couldn’t bring them back with us from Jason’s birthday.” I added.

Lea was still smiling “There were so many in that box too, we could blanket fort like pro’s in here.”

“Be more like a blanket castle.” I joked. 

“I love it.” 

By noon we had perfected the perfect structure utilizing all of the furniture as well as the fan and the fireplace. Sheila had claimed one corner for herself and refused to move which was fine with us. We made wontons and were sitting on the sofa under the fort. 

“They need to have more than those five episodes on tv!” Lea said before taking a huge bite of a spring roll. 

“You mean they only played five different episode of Gilmore Girls on tv on different days while I was gone.” 

She fixed me with a stare “Yes.” 

I chuckled “Why didn’t you just watch my box set?” 

Lea huffed “Because I was already on the couch each day and I didn’t feel like putting the disks in.” 

“You’re a dork” I replied.

“I’m your dork.” Lea smirked. 

“Well dork how about I actually get up and pop in a disk of episodes you haven’t seen in a while and we be lazy and watch that.” 

Lea beamed “Perfect, let me go get that extra duvet and we can curl up in it while we watch.” 

Lea ran off to get the duvet while I loaded the disk “Hey Le?” 

“Yeah?” I heard from the other side of the apartment. 

“Do you want kettlecorn or regular pop corn?” 

Lea walked back into the blanket fort wearing the duvet draped over herself “Look I’m a ghost Di.” 

“Thats cute, now what do you want?” 

“Both” Lea said sitting down on the couch with the duvet still draped over her. 

We had finished off a season of Gilmore Girls and all of our snacks by the time it was dark. I had suggested a Ghost Hunters marathon and Lea was all for it... For about half an episode. She was clung to me and hiding her head under the duvet as the whole crew traipsed around in the dark. 

“This can’t end good Di!” 

I tried not to chuckle at Lea because I was a little frightened by the atmosphere myself. “Well theres still new episodes Le so I think they will be ok.” 

“No” Lea said shaking her head. 

“I think there would have been a statement issued if they were not, do you wanna watch something else then?” 

“No, I’ll be fine” Lea said sitting up straighter but putting more of a death grip on the duvet. “Holy shit it moved, Di, Di, It freakin moved.” She dived back under the duvet. 

“Well they asked it too, I don’t know what else they were expecting.” I commented. 

“This is not funny.” 

“Their reaction was a little funny” I mumbled. 

“They aren’t gonna get evidence like that if they keep jumping around” Lea commented. 

I smiled “That’s the spirit.” 

Lea turned and looked at me “Are you trying to be punny?” 

“No, I accidentally said that, but that is how awesome I am.” I smirked. 

Lea turned back to the tv “I could never do this.” 

I shrugged “I think it would be cool, maybe investigate some place once.” 

“You would get hurt and I can’t have that.” Lea said grabbing my hand. 

“Then come with me.” 

“If you were so incessant that you wanted to go then I suppose I would have no choice but to accompany you.” 

I leaned over and kissed Lea’s cheek “Thank you!” 

“Thank goodness they are starting to pack up, this episode was getting crazy.” Lea sighed in relief. 

“Before the next one I’m gonna make some tea.” I said going to get off the couch. 

Lea quickly jumped up “Ya know, I would like some too, I’ll just come with you.” 

I smiled “I was gonna bring you some Le.” 

She huffed and squinted before passing me. “I’ll get everything if you boil the water.” 

It didn’t take long for the water to boil and we quickly had our tea. “Oh sounds like the next episode is starting” I pointed out. 

For a brief second Lea straightened her posture but quickly relaxed “I swear if something moves in this one we are watching mean girls.”

“I’d never say no to mean girls.” 

We sat back down on the couch “How did you talk me into this Di.”

“I believe I remember you happily joining in.” 

“I don’t know what the hell I was thinking” Lea took a sip of her tea “Oh shit that was a mannequin.” 

I felt my eyes get a little bigger “I don’t agree with mannequins.” 

“No, just no, they aren’t necessary.” Lea wildly gestured towards the tv. 

“They are just asking for it to walk towards them or turn and look at them.” I added. 

“Don’t jinx it.” Lea warned.

“It’s already been filmed.” I said. 

“Well.. Still.” Lea took a sip of tea “Wait shadow, shadow!” 

“Whoa that actually looked like a persons shadow..” I squinted at the tv like it would help me see it better. 

“We are both sleeping with the lights on tonight.” 

“Our apartment isn’t haunted Le.” I mentioned.

She thought for a second “Well better to be sure.” 

I nodded “Of course.” 

“How about some nice Friends or something on in the background.” 

I shrugged “Couldn’t hurt.” 

After a moment Lea spoke again “We could always call Naya and Heather to come over, maybe Jenna too.” 

“I thought you wanted to spend the week you and me, Lea.” 

“Well.. Yeah, I do.” She said. “The voice told them to get out!” 

“Shit.” I muttered holding Lea a little closer.

“Why aren’t they leaving!” 

“They can’t just leave.” I mention. 

“I would have been so out of there, you know theres a woman voice that runs scales while I have taken a shower several times in the upstairs bathroom of my apartment in New York.” 

I turned towards Lea “What?” 

“Yeah a woman running voice scales.” 

I laughed “You know that’s kind of fitting for you, if there was going to be a ghost in your apartment it would just happen to be a woman running scales.” 

“I’m not laughing Di.” She said glaring at me. 

I put a serious look on my face “Has Jon ever heard it?” 

“Yes! He heard it once, but he thought it was just me till I told him that I was downstairs making coffee and not upstairs.” 

“You, me, and Jon should investigate then.” 

Lea squinted “I’d rather just sell the apartment.” 

“Oo get a bigger one.” 

Lea laughed “What do I need a bigger one for?” 

I laughed too “Well maybe just bigger windows, overlooking something amazing.” 

“Yes definitely, that will of course be on the list.” 

I had turned my attention back to the episode “You know they hear an awful lot of footsteps.” 

“Ghosts have to walk too” Lea said settling into my side.

“And they wear period fitted shoes while they do it.” 

“I seriously think I’ve bit all of the dead skin off of my lip in nervousness from watching these episodes.” Lea jutted her bottom lip out for me to see that she had in fact nervously bitten at it. 

I frowned knowing she does that often and leaned over to lightly kiss her still pouted bottom lip. “All better.” 

That made her laugh “Oh I wish, but now I’m gonna have to deal with a raw lip for days, salt is gonna burn.” 

“All kinds of things are gonna burn Le.” 

“More footsteps!” She said in reference to the episode “I swear one of them is accidentally walking around and their footsteps are being picked up, I mean what is this.” 

“What do you mean accidentally walking around?” 

“Like going to the bathroom or something.” Lea said clearing up her statement for me. “I mean I know they check and see who is where but still.” 

“Would it be totally unhealthy to go get more popcorn?” I openly questioned. 

“Yes” Lea answered without missing a beat. 

“KIll joy.” I glared at her.

She brought her hand up to hold my chin “I just care about you honey.” 

I sighed “I know.” 

“How about after this one bed” Lea smiled at me. 

“Absolutely, I’m still so tired from jet lag.” 

We finished our tea and the episode ended landing us on my bed with Friends on in the background and my bedside lamps on. 

“That fourth cup of tea really hit the spot.” Lea said setting her mug on the table.

“I just love tea so much.” I smiled. 

“I’m usually more of a coffee person but you make damn good tea my lady.” 

I settled into Lea “Thank you so much.” 

She ran her finger through my hair “Beach tomorrow?” 

“I think yes, I’ll bring the camera, it’ll be awesome.” 

Lea leaned down to kiss the top of my head as we continued to watch friends. 

______________________________________________________________________

“Next In N Out we pass we are stopping for lunch.” I said to Lea as I moved into a different lane to pass a slow car. 

“I’m getting animal fries.” Lea smiled. 

“I’m still pissed that the last time you ordered those they refused to accept your order and looked at you weird.” 

“Eh, it’s cause I’m a New Yorker I guess.” 

“No, Le you obviously knew what they were so they shouldn’t have been like that.” 

“And that’s why we aren’t going back to that particular one.” Lea said knowing my next thought. 

“Yes, exactly.” 

We found an In N Out that did not question our orders as we headed down the PCH towards Orange County. It was a beautiful day, the sun was shining reflecting off of the ocean to our right. Lea had made a road trip playlist perfect for the occasion. She couldn’t wait to get into her fries so she switched between eating hers and feeding me mine as I drove. 

“You eat fries so cleanly lady.” Lea pouted. 

“Well it’s because you’re feeding them to me, just so much more neat” I smiled. 

“But it’s like all over me.” 

I glanced over to see just how much of the sauce was all over her and there was hardly any “What are you talking about?” 

“Just sit still like that, I am taking a picture.” 

I rolled my eyes but agreed smirking the entire time. “Are you quite done love?” 

She put the camera down “Yes.” 

We drove down into Newport to the end of Balboa Peninsula where the residential beaches are. After parking we gathered our beach stuff and headed down an access path to the sand. 

“Here!” Lea said plopping down our stuff on the sand. 

“It’s like we have the beach to ourselves.” I said looking around. There were a few surfers left over from the early morning and a couple families in the distance. 

We finished our food and stretched out to enjoy the sound of the waves.

“Lets go down to the waves!” Lea looked over at me with an excited expression. 

I grabbed my camera and we spent a while splashing around in the surf trying to see who could jump over the highest wave. 

Perfect day. 

 

A/N: Not the end. Updates will be coming more frequently.


	8. Tik Tok

Ch 8 (mini chapter) Tik Tok

“Dr. Pepper.” I said sternly. 

“Coke.” Lea responded back. 

“Dr. Pepper.” 

“Coke.” 

Dr. Pepper.” 

“We aren’t getting anywhere.” Lea changed her sentence that she had been repeating for the last two minutes. 

“So you admit we should get Dr. Pepper over Coke.” I smirked. 

“No.” Lea paused “We should just get both.” She finished hoisting both a carton of Coke and a carton of Dr. Pepper into our shopping cart. 

We continued on with our grocery shopping “At lease neither of us like Pepsi.” I uttered. 

“Im sure there is someone on the cast that likes Pepsi Di.” 

I shrugged “I’m sure you’re right, and thats fine for them.” 

I could see Lea roll her eyes as she pushed the basket down another isle. She stopped in front of the packaged cookies and turned to me with a huge smile “Oreos.” 

I stared at her while I grabbed a package of Oreos and a package of Fig Newtons. “There.” 

She shrugged still smiling “Okay.” 

I chucked as we headed to another aisle “We are gonna be sick from all of this junk food.” 

Lea nodded her head “As long as we eat it in moderation.” 

I laughed “Have you seen us eat snacks.” 

“Eh we’re fine, extra hikes.” 

I laughed once again while grabbing a box of popcorn off of the shelf “Okay Le.” 

“Oooo!” Lea exclaimed pushing the basket faster down the isle towards the deli. Once I caught up to her I gave her a questioning look. “They have tortellini, lets have that for dinner tonight.” 

I quickly nodded “Oh yes, with garlic bread.” 

Lea grabbed a big package and tossed it into the basket. “And then we will eat our cookies.” 

“Yep” I responded. “I think we have everything.” 

Lea pushed the basket towards the check out “Seems like it.” 

“Do we have anywhere else to go?” I asked not remembering if there was another store we were stopping at. 

“No this is it.” Lea answered. 

“That’s good, I want to put sweatpants on.” I said while setting the groceries on the check out belt. 

“My snuggie is calling my name.” Lea added. 

“It’s going ‘Lea, Lea, wear me please.’” I said in a high pitched sing song voice which sent us both into laughter.


End file.
